For downloadable photos: http://es.pn/oWGC13
One-week discussion to be broadcast everywhere Sports center, Out of the lines, College Football LiveESPNU and ESPN.com
ESPN assembled a panel of college sports experts – including ESPN analysts, current head football coaches, a former conference commissioner and a current athletic director – to examine a variety of topics surrounding college football and offer a plan for potential change. Segments of the College football: a plan for change the roundtable will be broadcast on ESPN Sports center, College Football Live And Out of the linesas a one-hour special on ESPNU and on ESPN.com from Sunday, August 14 to Sunday, August 21.
Rece Davis will host ESPN college football analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Urban Meyer, Mark May, Mike Bellotti, Robert Smith and Rod Gilmore; Jay Bilas, ESPN college basketball analyst; current college football coaches Nick Saban (Alabama) and Bob Stoops (Oklahoma); Mike Tranghese, former BIG EAST commissioner; and current Tennessee athletic director Joan Cronan.
Sports center And College Football Live
Sports center College football: a plan for change The five-part series will focus on topics that have been discussed and debated by fans, industry representatives, media and more. A different segment examining each topic will debut on the morning editions of the program and will be rebroadcast throughout the day:
- External remuneration (August 14): A debate over whether it should be legal for college athletes to commercialize their image and likeness for profit.
- External influences (Aug. 15): An examination of the impact of agents, third parties and 7-on-7 coaches on a prospective student-athlete and what needs to be changed.
- Recruitment and application (August 16): A look at the recruiting rules, what needs to be changed and how they should be enforced.
- Pay to play (Aug. 17): A discussion of what an athlete is entitled to as the true value of a college athletic scholarship beyond room, board and books.
- Post-season (Aug. 18): A look at how college football could establish its national champion and what changes could be made.
In addition to Sports center, College Football Live – airs weekdays at 3:30 p.m. ET – will air each segment: Pay for Play (August 15 on ESPN), Outside Influences (August 16 on ESPN), Recruiting and Enforcement (August 17 on ESPN), Compensation (August 18 on ESPNU) and Postseason (August 19 on ESPNU).
Out of the lines
ESPN will devote the entire Out of the lines episode Sunday August 21 at 9 a.m. Change planproviding a compilation of the five Sports center segments and concluding with a potential consensus for change.
ESPNU
ESPNU to air original hour-long show College football: a plan for change show on Sunday, August 21 at 3 p.m. with an encore presentation at 8 p.m. The program will combine new roundtable content with segments from the five-part roundtable. Sports center series. It will be rebroadcast on Monday August 22 at 5 p.m. and Saturday August 27 at 11 a.m.
ESPN.com
ESPN.com will publish each Sports center segment and offer fans the opportunity to provide feedback via a daily poll question.
A behind-the-scenes story, including interviews with the roundtable panelists, is available at www.espnfrontrow.com.
Excerpts from each segment:
External remuneration:
Bila: “My thing is: What harm would it do if we had an Olympic model where an athlete could enter into a reasonable contract using their name and likeness? It wouldn’t cost the university anything – and we now use the players as billboards.
Bend over : “It will all be a question of recruitment. You come here, I’ll put you in touch with the BMW dealership, Nike, it’s right next to us, you’re going to have this and the other, we’re going to have you on billboards, that’s what we will pay you. Who can pay the most? And you know it: you’re talking about losing control.
External influences:
Herbstreit: “We have star coaches who are basically street operatives, trying to go talk to all these schools. And hey, what are you going to do for me, kind of thing. I think enforcing respect for third parties and outside influences is the number one priority in college football right now.
Tranghese: “If college football doesn’t get its hands on 7-on-7, it pains me to say it – and Jay (Bilas) knows it. That’s what we have in college basketball right now. School influence in college basketball has been so downplayed that it is 
scary. You’re not going to be able to recruit a top college basketball player to your institution unless you deal with – quote – what we call the street agent. The problem in college basketball is immense. If football doesn’t take care of it, it will be like that.
Recruitment and application:
Saban: “We should penalize the perpetrators. I’m with you one hundred percent on this. But I say we spend all our time on the technical aspects. Same thing with all the technology we have and how we communicate with people. We shouldn’t have a hundred rules about phone calls, text messages, emails, this and that. I mean, we should just say – okay, this is how you communicate now. This is where you can communicate and everyone can talk to everyone. And I think we would eliminate a lot of these secondary things that the NCAA spends a lot of time on, to be able to spend more time on the major violations.
Meyer: “There was a great model used in the ’80s. The biggest problem in college football was steroid abuse. And I’m proud to say that in college football, we’ve solved that problem. They got all the press together, had a special convention and they said we’re going to clarify the rules – what I think Nick is saying – clarify these rules. But also having a non-negotiable penalty, oh, my uncle did it, I didn’t know the rule, no, no, no. I met two of my former players before going on this show – the guys I trust. I said, tell me, are steroids in football? College football? And they said no. And I said, well, why not? And they said it because the risk far outweighs the reward. I said, now let me ask you another question. How many great football players take things from agents, how many great football players are induced? I asked these two children. They said, coach, it’s everywhere. I said, why? He said, because you’re probably not going to get caught.
Pay to play:
Cronan: “And I’m all for the cost of attendance.” But I think we need to tweak it a little bit because we’re all looking for a level playing field. If the cost of attending Tennessee is $4,000 and the cost of attending University 18 to 22 years old. So I think we need to look at adjusting a little bit, but I think it’s a good place to start.
Saban: “But I really think the Pell Grant, it should be beyond a guy’s ability or qualify for the Pell Grant. Because these players actually come from a socio-economic background and they should be compensated because they don’t have the type of support at home that they might need financially, so it should be beyond that – we shouldn’t eliminate, you know, the federal grants that these guys can get because of their financial situation.
Post-season:
Tranghese: “But I’ll tell you this: Sit down and talk about the 18-team football playoffs and try to tell me how it’s going to work. We have the SEC and now we have the Pac-12 and the Big Ten and the SEC championship game will be around December 10th. We now have exams. We can’t play football during exams. Now it’s Christmas… Now we’re going to move into January – we can’t play on the weekends because of the NFL. Now we will play during the week. People have work, they no longer travel as much as before to attend pétanque matches because we now play on Mondays and Tuesdays. There are so many problems with the playoffs. I understand why people want a playoff. We are a society that wants an easy conclusion.
Meyer: “When I was at Utah, we were undefeated in 2004, and I knew that on any given day, this team, if we’re healthy, we could beat any team in America…and so I was a big believer and kind of a big believer in giving us one chance, just give us that one chance, like at Butler in basketball Then I go to Florida and it’s completely different By the time you get there. at this end of the season, on this schedule, the SEC championship game and go play a bowl game and then, by the way, if you win that, you get one more – you’re upset Your. team is – you barely have to maintain that cohesion But as far as the BCS goes, I would keep it as is.
Gilmore: “I think the model we currently have can be modified slightly. I don’t like using the BCS to determine the formula to determine the two teams, I think it should be a tool, you know, have a committee, have six, eight, 10, or however many people you want , use it as a tool, use polls as a tool and figure out which two teams should play.
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