MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — The good news for college football coaches, athletic directors and university presidents, among others? The topic of scheduling — whether to play eight or nine conference games each year — ultimately took a back seat at the SEC spring meetings.
The bad news? A new, perhaps even more polarizing question has emerged.
THE NCAASEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12 all recently voted in favor of a settlement in the House v. NCAA case. In shorthand terms, the settlement is expected to result in the NCAA paying former athletes approximately $2.8 billion in back damages, according to the USA TODAY Network. It also lays the groundwork for schools to pay athletes directly, as a condition of the settlement states that schools will share revenue with them.
“I think that’s what we’re here for, right? To try to figure this out,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Tuesday during the first day of the 2024 SEC spring meetings . “There’s a lot of speculation and a lot of vague accounts, which might not be true. We’re here to figure that out.”
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Added Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer: “I think it’s just about getting all the information. We hear things, you read things. I know it’s still a work in progress right now, so I’m trying to figure out where we actually are and have that communication where we’re at.” all together in a room and really hearing the facts, trying to separate what’s real and what’s not, I think that’s where it all starts.
While athletes are expected to receive a share of the revenue — at least $20 million to start, according to the USA TODAY Network — athletic departments are expected to take cost-cutting measures to support this new expense. One idea put forward by some is to eliminate unpaid sports. If enforced, how is Title IX considered?
Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts, when asked if he could easily tell an athlete at his school that his program would not be cut, said he would not be “wise” to anyone to make this promise in the current state of affairs, although he added that his colleagues do not give him the impression that eliminating sport is what they want to do.
“It’s not fun,” Alberts added. “It’s a last resort.”
Under the regulations, enrollment limits should take precedence over scholarship limits. Are visiting opportunities completely removed? A limited roster could impact how teams practice. With fewer players available, a common type of football practice called “double scouting,” which involves a pair of offensive and defensive units working simultaneously, would not be possible, according to DeBoer.
“You figure things out when the time comes, but obviously there’s a model that’s kind of in this area. It’s the NFL,” DeBoer said. “There probably needs to be a little more professional development in that area than what we’ve done over the years in terms of how they practice and how they do things.”
And what happens to NIL collectives now that schools can pay athletes directly?
“I’ve said it 100 times and I’ll say it again: We don’t have a revenue problem in college sports, we have a spending problem,” Alberts said. “Does this reframe our thinking? Does it create some discipline? So far, it hasn’t…The fundamental activities of college athletics have been altered and changed forever , and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.
“It’s just going to be different, and our ability to adjust and adapt is going to be key. It’s true that historically we haven’t been very good at it. Now we’re going to be able to change our behavior pass. “
Conversations around this issue, among a host of other topics such as future timing, began on Tuesday. Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said coaches were given facts and asked to come back with potential recommendations: ‘Maybe the SEC can move forward with the next steps,’ said Freeze.
Negotiations are expected to continue on Wednesday and Thursday.
“It’s always easy to find a solution, and then the details come in,” Alberts said. “Let’s be honest with ourselves: There will be unintended benefits and unintended consequences that we haven’t even thought about today.
“But I think you have to take the first step. You take the first step, you start working on what execution looks like and we’re going to learn things along the way and we’re going to have to do some hard things. It’s going to be different. But in the end, everything will be fine.”
Richard Silva is a sports reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.
