There’s one heck of a college sports meeting allegedly going down next week at the White House.
History will look back and see two different versions of college athletics: the era where players played for their school, and the era where players played for money. The Name, Image and Likeness era was ushered in at break neck speed, and I’d argue that even the biggest fans of the sport still don’t fully understand what’s going on.
Though one thing that college sports fans do have a good grasp on is the transfer portal, which has been just as detrimental to the state of college athletics as NIL has in the past couple of years. For those that aren’t familiar, the transfer portal is a digital platform that allows for student-athletes to make it known to other universities that they are open to transferring from their respective institutions.
There used to be a rule that required student-athletes to sit out a year if they transferred to another school, but that has since been removed as a requirement. In this day and age of college athletics, especially with the introduction of NIL (Name, Image & Likeness) opportunities, some are calling the transfer landscape and athletics in general as the “wild west.”
That’s why there’s currently a team being assembled to hopefully fix it.
According to ESPN, it’s going to be a real who’s who at a roundtable that’s tentatively scheduled for March 6. Though there’s no official agenda for the meeting available, the list of notable figures below is believed to be speaking about the current state of college athletics, and what can be done to better stabilize the landscape now and into the future:
-President Trump (he’s hosting the roundtable)
-Commissioners from the top four college sports conferences
-Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
-New York Yankees president Randy Levine
-Former Alabama coach Nick Saban
-Former college and NFL coach Urban Meyer
-Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice
-NBA commissioner Adam Silver
-Tiger Woods (no other descriptors needed)
Other potential attendees that have been rumored to be invited include Heisman winners Charlie Ward and Tim Tebow, as well as the chairman of Texas Tech’s board, Cody Campbell.
ESPN first reported the roundtable meeting, and provided one quote from an unidentified attendee that helped to clarify what exactly the panel should be discussing:
“It’s people who could be involved in helping shape the future of college athletics and some of the solutions and strategies to structuring the athletic world going forward. It’s so preliminary, it’s hard to say anything with any sort of specificity because there hasn’t been anything provided to us in writing of that sort yet.”
There’s no doubt that college sports needs some guidance, and since the NCAA doesn’t seem to be stepping in to… well, do the job they are supposed to be doing, the group listed above is taking it upon themselves to figure things out. Oh to be a fly on the wall when President Trump, Nick Saban and Tiger Woods start getting into the weeds about college sports.
If they were smart, they’d televise the whole thing… I’d certainly tune in to see what everyone has to say.
