The NCAA’s cynical quest for the Iron Throne of college sports regulation began in early 2019. This episode discusses how the NCAA transitioned from outright hostility to name, image, and likeness “compensation” to a stealth campaign in Alston, Congress, and public relations to eliminate the athletes’ rights movement in one fell swoop. Beginning with its decision to appeal the Alston trial court’s decision to the 9th Circuit in March 2019, the NCAA laid the foundation for its imperial march towards the Iron Throne of college sports regulation. The material data points for this quest ran along three tracks: (1) legal; (2) congressional (particularly the Senate); and (3) public relations built around claims of a genuine commitment to change NCAA rules to permit NIL “compensation.” On the legal front, these data points are the NCAA’s legal briefs in Alston and its statements at oral argument in the 9th Circuit on March 9th, 2020. The data points in its congressional campaign are four hearings in the Senate in 2020 and five bills—four in the Senate and one in the house. The data points in its public relations campaign are three work products of the NCAA Board of Governors Federal and State Legislation Working Group and manipulation of the press to suggest that voluntary rules changes on NIL were a done deal.

This episode identifies the crucial milestones in the modern era of college sports leading to the 2019 perfect storm. I identify six themes that have developed over the last seventy years that have come to define the business of big-time college sports: (1) the belief among in-system stakeholders that the NCAA and only the NCAA should be the sole regulatory authority in college sports; (2) the decades-long tension between powerful football interests (now the Power 5) and the NCAA national office; (3) the unprecedented market dominance and political influence of the Power 5 conferences; (4) the propaganda tactics used by the NCAA and Power 5 to manipulate public opinion and decision-makers in Congress, federal courts, and state legislatures to NCAA/Power 5-friendly positions; and, (5) the influence of Myles Brand’s “collegiate model” to justify the amateur-professional dilemma. All these themes defined the events of the perfect storm.

On Friday, July 30th, the NCAA Board of Governors emerged from seclusion to announce the formation of a “constitutional convention committee” that will propose “dramatic” changes to the NCAA constitution. A Constitutional Review Committee will redraft the NCAA constitution to usher in a new era in NCAA governance. The Committee will be comprised of 22 members from in-system stakeholders such as university presidents, conference commissioners, athletics directors, “independent” members of the NCAA Board of Governors, and students from each division. Buttressed by comments from Board of Governors Chair Jack DeGioia (president of Georgetown University) and “independent” BOG member Robert Gates (former Secretary of Defense and Texas A&M president), the Committee intends to have recommendations in place by November 15th, 2021, with final proposals to be provided to the Board of Governors by December 15th, 2021. In three-and-a-half months, the Committee aims to accomplish what Mark Emmert said just sixteen days ago would take “years.” An obvious question arises from this newfound need for a ground-up restructuring of college sports: how can we trust the same people who created this to correct it? This episode discusses the NCAA’s most recent desperate attempt to remain relevant in the college sports world and uses it to transition into an analysis of the perfect storm (2019-present).

The Power 5 conference realignment mud fight is escalating. Yesterday, Big 12 conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby came out of hiding to accuse ESPN of conspiring with unnamed accomplices to ruin the Big 12. What happened to the “integrity of college sports”? While Bowlsby rants and ESPN reports on itself, I refocus on perhaps a more important arena: the United States Senate. I lay the foundation for discussing three important legislative proposals originating in the Senate that set the parameters for the next round of hearings. I include an in-depth look at the Athletes’ Bill of Rights proposal offered by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Corey Booker (D-NJ) in December 2020.