With massive corporate and academic entities battling gladiator-style for every cent generated by college sports, the figure carved on the bottom of the totem pole is the average fan. Our wants and needs do not factor in the equation. If a conference wants more broadcast revenue, the fans will pay extra for the subscription. If a football program wants to compete for a title, it’s put on fans to fill the NIL fund. When stadiums are shown half-full, its the fans’ fault for failing to show. Meanwhile, not a single moment is spent empathizing with fans, who are often treated more as a noisy nuisance than the actual source of power.

Today’s fan is asked to support a new and unfamiliar roster of players every year. Fans are asked to celebrate the achievements of athletes who aren’t particularly loyal to the team, but are looking ahead to the next big pay day. Fans are now expected to travel coast-to-coast for away games, and are expected to treat completely unfamiliar opponents as heated rivals. A fan walks into a stadium after spending $50 on parking and is greeted by a QR code requesting NIL money. The joy of watching a team grow and mature over four years is no longer afforded to fans. The more college sports detaches its self from the fan experience, the more fans will detach themselves from college sports.

So how do we fix it?

To Start, End Autonomy

Much could be repaired by sending a Terminator back to 2014 to prevent “The Autonomy Era” from ever happening. Up to 2014, college football was seeing more parity and competition from smaller brand programs, with everyone benefiting from a playing field that was fairly even (apart from the Power Five’s enormous budgetary advantages). In 2014, the Power Five essentially conducted a hostile takeover of the NCAA, granting itself enormous powers that included 1) passing legislation without needing approval from the rest of Division I, 2) providing additional athlete benefits (cost-of-attendance stipends, enhanced meals, medical coverage, etc.), and 3) influencing governance structure in ways smaller conferences could not.

With the billionaires calling all the shots, the billionaires reaped all the benefits, leaving more than half of the college football community without agency. As a result, even lower-tier “power” programs are suffering, with the legendary PAC-12 disintegrated and two power teams, Oregon State and Washington State, completely de-powered.

Ask yourself: has Autonomy made college sports better? Nope.

Mandate Reasonable Conference Footprints

Next season, fans of Oregon will travel 2,148 miles to see their beloved Ducks take on hated conference foe…Northwestern. Why do Oregon fans have to give a shit about Northwestern? Because the greedy Power 2 dissolved a perfectly good west coast conference just to add more riches to its vaults. How this effects fans didn’t matter at all. The Big 10 was scooping up big brands at fire sale prices.

Fans should not have to max their frequent flyer miles to see their teams play on the road. With Autonomy ended, the NCAA should restructure conferences so that regional rivalries are restored and travel is reduced. Sacramento State joining the MAC is ridiculous for everyone. No wonder fans are declining to buy tickets.

Make Notre Dame Grow Up and Join a Conference

I’m tired of seeing college sports make concessions to Notre Dame. This isn’t 1983. The Irish is just another big-brand team with money and a fan base. The NCAA should either require that Notre Dame join a conference or be ineligible for bowl games. And if you think that this should apply to all independents: yes.

Put a Cap on NIL

It is absolutely ridiculous that a college level QB is making $6 to $10 million. Where is this money coming from? It’s not the corporate entities reaping all the profits from college athletes. It’s us. You and me. And it’s got to stop. Because we’re not deciding how much is given and to who it is given to. We’re just told to shut-up and write the check. Put a cap on how much money a student athlete can be rewarded from NIL.

Get Serious About Ending Roster Tampering

It’s just a big joke when a G6 program is looted from its talent. But when it happens to someone like Ole Miss or Washington or Clemson, oh my God! The NCAA needs to be empowered to investigate and punish programs that meddle with other programs. It happens in every sport, and it’s gross.

Stop Treating the G6 Like a Developmental Program

Why bother doing the due diligence of scouting a prospect, recruiting him and developing him into a viable college football player when you can just wait for a G6 program to do the heavy lifting? Already, major sports media outlets call this one-sided process “moving up,” as if the G6 is a minor league designed to serve the Power 4, who receives all the benefits of this system while the G6 incurs all the penalties.

If the Power Four wants to pluck the best talent from Group of Six programs, they need to pay a developmental fee. It costs G6 programs time, money and resources to turn a freshman athlete into a prime-time college athlete. Why aren’t G6 programs being compensated for the service?

Restore the Transfer Limitations

The Portal isn’t providing real benefit to anyone. On the surface, it enables athletes to make bank while helping coaches plug holes in their rosters (or even build them from scratch). But we’re arriving to a nihilistic point where school affiliation means nothing. Tom Brady will always be a citizen of the University of Michigan. Meanwhile, current national champion Fernando Mendoza hails from both Cal and Indiana. His championship counterpart Carson Beck of Miami won a title as a Georgia Bulldog. Fans can’t claim an athlete because athletes won’t commit to a program…so why should we?

We have to put an end to mercenary football. The practice offers nothing for fans to grab purchase except for the logo. We don’t root for logos. We root for people.

IMAGE: my own