As a prelude to the NCAA’s vote today on the proposed constitution, I look at three things over the last week that may portend choppy waters going forward: (1) the ACC’s announcement that it seeks a year-long pause on CFP expansion talks; (2) an op-ed in USA Today by Knight Commission leaders that align with the ACC’s announcement; and (3) an NCAA podcast episode that tempers expectations on what may follow the likely ratification of the new constitution.

The NCAA is in full propaganda mode for its upcoming convention from January 19th – 22nd. The convention’s centerpiece is a vote to ratify the new NCAA constitution. This episode discusses the convention, its action items, its portrayal by the NCAA, and the likely consequences/next steps after ratifying the new constitution.

Alabama coach Nick Saban and Georgia coach Kirby Smart used a joint presser before tonight’s CFP championship to lobby for federal NIL regulation. Rather than dismiss such policy talk as a distraction from the game, Saban and Smart made it clear that they were on the same page regarding the federalization of the NIL marketplace. Their primary justification was to prevent the “haves” in college football from running roughshod over the “have nots.” ESPN treated this comical justification for a re-engagement with Congress as legitimate. This episode analyzes the coaches’ comments and what they may portend for the Power 5’s congressional strategy in 2022.

For over seventy years, the NCAA and in-system stakeholder beneficiaries of the big-time college sports marketplace have proclaimed that any challenge to the NCAA’s regulatory authority or basic amateurism-based business model would result in the fatal collapse of college sports. From capitulation to the full athletics scholarship in 1956 to the name, image, and likeness debate in 2021, the NCAA has opposed the modernization of college sports with totalitarian militance. Yet with every change—most imposed by the very external regulatory threats the NCAA/Power 5 seek to eliminate—college sports not only survived but thrived. This episode closes out 2021 with a discussion of several fundamental changes to the college sports landscape that disproves the NCAA’s fearmongering. As the Supreme Court said in its dismissal of the NCAA’s latest “sky is falling” campaign: the games go on!