[Giants]

Mack Brown speaks truth.

If schools are going to pay players it makes zero sense to have conferences. It does make sense to have a Major College Football League that splits schools into regions.

Michael Wilbon could have been referring to this in his comment last week on PTI about conferences not mattering anymore. Remember, Notre Dame's former AD said that eventually the athletic department will employ athletes to play. The question then becomes what role does academics play at that point?

This certainly raises a ton of questions about the role academics will play when players are paid. Will they even need to have graduated high school to be an employee given their value is their football skills?  Will they and how can they be required to attend classes and make progress toward graduation to be eligible to play?  Will part of compensation amount be the value of their education? How is that determined? Will college football employees be able to take cash, scholarship, or a combination of the two? Will scholarship value count for 1/2 the dollars as cash compensation toward a cap, so if you get more players on scholarship your cap hits are lower, creating an incentive to get real students playing for your team?

I find it interesting that Brown mentioned a salary cap. A salary cap is the only way to ensure coaches don't have their compensation drastically cut and certain programs (and their boosters) don't spend out of control. A cap will also creat more parity, drive more interest, and and make the revenue pie larger just like in the NFL.

It's all fascinating.

A salary cap would require a CBA.    Otherwise, it would violate federal law.  All of the questions you raised would be part of the negotiations.

[Giants]

Mack Brown speaks truth.

If schools are going to pay players it makes zero sense to have conferences. It does make sense to have a Major College Football League that splits schools into regions.

Michael Wilbon could have been referring to this in his comment last week on PTI about conferences not mattering anymore. Remember, Notre Dame's former AD said that eventually the athletic department will employ athletes to play. The question then becomes what role does academics play at that point?

This certainly raises a ton of questions about the role academics will play when players are paid. Will they even need to have graduated high school to be an employee given their value is their football skills?  Will they and how can they be required to attend classes and make progress toward graduation to be eligible to play?  Will part of compensation amount be the value of their education? How is that determined? Will college football employees be able to take cash, scholarship, or a combination of the two? Will scholarship value count for 1/2 the dollars as cash compensation toward a cap, so if you get more players on scholarship your cap hits are lower, creating an incentive to get real students playing for your team?

I find it interesting that Brown mentioned a salary cap. A salary cap is the only way to ensure coaches don't have their compensation drastically cut and certain programs (and their boosters) don't spend out of control. A cap will also creat more parity, drive more interest, and and make the revenue pie larger just like in the NFL.

It's all fascinating.

A salary cap would require a CBA.    Otherwise, it would violate federal law.  All of the questions you raised would be part of the negotiations.