It’s almost that time of the year again. That old familiar scent of autumn in the air which brings to mind falling leaves and temperatures… and football. No atmosphere is quite as enthralling as that very special vibration, that smell in the air which surrounds a fall football game on a Saturday night. Finally, it’s time to bundle up and go out to the stadium to pull for the local team to Fight! Fight! Fight!
Training camps are already underway on college campuses across the country as we are now less than two weeks until kickoff. Sports writers are ripe with speculation, but the truth will come out down on the gridiron when the action gets underway.
However, this college football season will be like no other in the history of the sport. There have been some significant changes over the summer that will affect the relationships between student athletes and their universities forever.
We all know that the NCAA is floundering in a struggle for its very existence. Its existence in the status quo that is. Big changes will continue to come, and if the NCAA cannot adapt to the new ways then the current administrations will have to be replaced. So far Mark Emmert and company seem to be holding firmly on to a formula for college athletics that no longer exists.
It finally took an act from the NCAA Board of Directors to grant the autonomy demanded by the group of major universities known as the ‘Power 5’. NCAA administration flatly refused to even consider the concept, another sign that they have got to go the sooner the better.
Meanwhile, the member schools of the Power 5 group, which include the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12. Pac-12 and the SEC, will now have the power to compensate their student athletes as they see fit without having to consult the NCAA. Look for that power to start sifting downwards to the smaller colleges soon.
Speaking of the SEC, the biggest change for football fans down south will be the inauguration of the new SEC Network in conjunction with ESPN. The much anticipated new network will give SEC fans access to all major sporting events put on by the Southeastern Conference, including broadcasting all SEC football games! The new network is expected to be a substantial financial and popular success.
With the recent decision by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilkin in favor of Ed O’Bannon and company against the NCAA, an entire new world of opportunities has opened up for college athletes. Wilkin ruled that the NCAA did indeed violate federal antitrust statutes in prohibiting student athletes to be compensated for the use of their names or images in commercial ventures.
