A league that oversees the highest level of college football. No more conferences as we knew them. Places for the playoffs are decided solely on the field. Promotion and relegation for small schools. Players are paid directly. NIL and transfer portal, managed.
A group of influential leaders want all of this to happen quickly – and they’re touting it as the best path forward for a sport they say needs to be saved.
Several college presidents, Roger Goodell’s top lieutenant at the NFL and some top sports executives have hatched a plan — dubbed by outsiders the “Super League” — to completely transform college football, those involved in the “College Sports Tomorrow” (CST) said Athleticism. Although this project has been met with skepticism within current sporting institutions, the people behind these ideas believe they must be implemented.
“The current model of governance and management of college sports is dead,” Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud said. Athleticism in an interview.
West Virginia President Gordon Gee added: “We are in an existential crisis. »
Syverud and Gee are part of the CST, a 20-person group that also includes NFL No. 2 Brian Rolapp, Philadelphia 76ers owner David Blitzer and lead organizer Len Perna of TurnkeyZRG, the search firm that places nearly all the conference’s top commissioners, including recently the Big Ten’s Tony Petitti.
They are attempting to implement a radically new system that would replace the NCAA and College Football Playoff and potentially provide a solution to the hurricane of current and future lawsuits targeting the sports business, as well as the NIL and portal issues transfer charges that they believe have put college athletics as a whole in jeopardy.
The current CSE blueprint would create a system that would have the top 70 programs — all members of the old big five conferences, plus Notre Dame and new ACC member SMU — as permanent members and encompass more than 130 FBS universities.
The perpetual members would be divided into seven divisions of 10 teams, joined by an eighth division of teams which would be promoted from the second tier.
The 50-plus second division teams would have the opportunity to advance to the top division, creating a promotion system similar to the structure of European football leagues. The 70 permanent teams would never risk going down, while the second division would benefit from promotion and relegation.
The playoffs would not require a selection committee, as the eight division winners and eight top-ranked wild cards would go to the playoffs. Wild card spots would be determined by records and tiebreakers, much like in the NFL.
CST borrows ideas from leagues like the NFL, Premier League and MLS to create a system they believe would bring more value and sustainability to television. It is no coincidence that some of its most influential members have direct ties to these leagues.
So far, the group has struggled to gain traction with schools that would play in their proposed “Super League.” The ACC board heard a presentation from the group in February. However, planned dinners with Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 administrators were all canceled. Spokespeople for the Big Ten and SEC said commissioners Petitti and Greg Sankey, respectively, had not met with Perna’s group.
The leagues have been hesitant and canceled their meetings so as not to upset their current broadcast partners, including ESPN and Fox, according to an executive briefed on the commissioners’ thoughts.
Among the biggest obstacles facing this new venture are the billions of dollars in television deals that all the major conferences have made with the major networks: ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS. The FBS conferences recently signed a six-year, $7.8 billion extension with ESPN for exclusive rights to the expanded College Football Playoff.
The Big Ten’s agreements extend through the 2029-30 season, the Big 12’s through 2030-31 and the SEC’s exclusive deal with ESPN extends through 2033-34. One television executive called the idea that there is much more untapped money in the market “naive.” A CST executive said major networks with existing deals would likely have to sign on to the plan before they could release it on the open market in the 2030s.
Universities would own a percentage of the league, a model derived from MLS where it was designed by former president Mark Abbott, who was involved with CST. Unlike the football league, the revenue distribution would not be split evenly among all competitors, as big brands like Alabama and Notre Dame would receive a larger slice of the financial pie. CST believes there would be added value in negotiating television deals as a single entity and creating more logical broadcast windows, much like the NFL’s approach.
While the CST model would eliminate the long-standing conference structure for football, it would create an entity to negotiate with a potential union that would represent players on NIL, the transfer portal and salary structure rules. This embrace of collective bargaining could allow it to avoid the antitrust issues that have limited the NCAA’s ability to enforce its own rules.
“The only way to solve the problem is to have a solution that is legally defensible, politically acceptable, commercially prudent and able to partner with student-athletes in a way that is truly good for them,” Perna said . Athleticism.
College administrators are particularly concerned about the House v. NCAA class action lawsuit in Northern California, seeking zero revenues denied to athletes ahead of 2021 rule changes. If the plaintiffs are successful, the NCAA and conferences in power could have to pay billions in damages. The House case is one of several potentially crippling federal antitrust lawsuits related to athletes’ employment rights and zero compensation.
“I do think the NCAA conferences are at very significant risk of going bankrupt in the near future because of the lawsuits, both the ones that are going to trial soon and the ones that follow,” Syverud said.
Perna started the project three years ago and is considered its figurehead. He has good connections in college sports through his role at Turnkey.
According to two executives briefed on the proposal, one of the reasons FBS commissioners last month imposed a March 15 deadline on themselves to approve the six-year extension of the College Football Playoff was to avoid pressure from the CST. During AthleticismIn reports from , executives involved in college football asked, “What do you know about the Perna/Rolapp group?” They expressed concern about what might be formulated, as well as doubts about why this group would be the one to solve the complex issues facing the NCAA.
While media and college sports critics who have heard of CST have cautioned against private equity involvement, Perna insisted it is not a money-making venture for individuals in his group. He said CST had raised initial funds to pay for the costs incurred, but declined to say how much. The plan is for the new format to generate more revenue on the assumption that there will be more TV money to be generated in a model comparable to the NFL’s TV setup.
“We’re looking at something that’s big enough to give everyone a chance to compete, and that translates to about 70 schools,” Syverud said. “It also creates more valuable content, which generates the resources needed to do more of the things that university presidents consider important to college sports.” It is not true that the money needed to do what is right for our college athletes in football is going to come out of nowhere. One way or another it must be generated. This is also what we are trying to understand.
In recent months, several prominent college executives have spoken outspokenly about a future in which schools pay their players directly. Private equity financing could provide schools with an influx of capital to resolve these legal issues and compensate their athletes competitively, in exchange for participation in the schools’ athletic activities.
A prominent college football administrator claimed CST was trying to “buy college football.” CST countered that it was only trying to create a system for football that would, in turn, generate the finances necessary for non-revenue-generating sports to survive and thrive. Under these plans, sports other than football would remain in their current conference structure.
“Athletes need to be paid and are going to be paid,” Syverud said. “Most of the rules against paying athletes, including some that are still in place, are likely to fall in court. We will have to support women’s sports, Olympic sports and we will have to have competitive fairness and methods to have a reasonable working structure. However, I think we need a more centralized national university league.
CST is not the only one trying to find solutions. The SEC and Big Ten, football’s two most powerful conferences, formed an advisory alliance focused on “a sustainable future of college sports” as a clear example. At least one school, Florida State, is actively exploring the possibility of creating its own private equity partnership.
Rolapp’s involvement in CST has raised eyebrows. He was the mastermind of the NFL’s current $110 billion television deals and was sought for top university commissioner jobs. Although it is in the NFL’s best interest for its college football system to be strong, executives briefed on Rolapp’s role insist the league is not involved. Rolapp declined to comment.
CSE leaders maintain their intentions are pure – and they’re eager to get started. An avalanche of legal activity could significantly increase the likelihood that their plan or something similar could come to fruition. Even before this day of potential fundamental change, the CST wants to lead from the front, not the back.
“Speed is our friend,” Gee said. “We don’t have much time to waste.”
(Top illustration: John Bradford for Athleticism; Photos: iStock)