A lot of this Dennis Dodd post about Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick’s vision of D-1 academic elites and lower brow schools splitting into two collegiate athletic associations is silly – for example, Vanderbilt walking away from the SEC over fulfilling some highfalutin quasi-Ivy League mission would be an expensive one, to say the least – but I will say that Swarbrick has grasped one reality that I predict his peers will eventually have no choice but to embrace if they keep losing antitrust litigation.
… If the NCAA loses the O’Bannon case, players could make up to $20,000 in a trust fund payable after they leave school. Several lawsuits against the NCAA and Power Five conferences are calling for the full-on payment of athletes.
Northwestern is still waiting on a National Labor Relations Board ruling that would allow private-school athletes to unionize.
“The irony of all this is, maybe the only way we can get resolution is to ask our athletes to unionize,” Swarbrick said.
That, at least, would bring some sort of cost certainty instead of spending endless hours in court.
“You could have an enforceable collective bargaining,” Swarbrick said.
Yep, the same thing that keeps kids out of the NBA and NFL until the pros are good and ready to take them could be what allows schools to live with the cost of the consequences. Ironic, ain’t it?
Get The Picture 
The irony is that as long as the kids aren’t paid they remain student athletes and this anti trust fabrication is nothing more than some liberal judges wet dream. Once the ncaa agrees to pay the kids at a set amount which limits what the annual payment is… you really do have a legitimate anti trust issue.
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That’s the genious of the “cost of attendance stipend.” It’s an established, non-negotiable measurement that schools already report to the feds. Schools that are in high cost-of-living areas like ahem Auburn-Opelika are about to be the highest bidder by default.
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They are paid now, that payment is just capped at an artificially low level (GIA scholarships).
Lol @
Basic economic rights for employees are now a “liberal wet dream?” Says something about something…
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employees… I thought they were students. Are you gonna pay turman the same amount as chubb… keep digging.
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“Student” is not inconsistent with “employee.”
Your lack of faith in markets to answer questions like that is dispiriting.
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I can hear it now… we need to raise the maximum wage… wait…
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I really like the idea of the two organizations/divisions. This actually has merit. Yes, money dollars TV money etc. Let’s get past the dollar signs (I even laughed as I typed those words!). Separate the haves and have nots and play ball. Those that are truly interested in chasing the money and trophies please move over here. Everyone else, please step over there. Where would Georgia go? I would hope with the have nots, but, reserve fund and all. This would allow the pretenders to stop throwing good money after bad, return to academics and put the spotlight back on the student rather than the athlete-student. I would be all for this move!
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I appreciate your sense of romance, but read Swarbrick’s words carefully. He’s not seriously advocating what you’re hoping for. He’s just suggesting a facade for schools who want to have a way to preserve the status quo as much as possible.
There’s nothing stopping Notre Dame from adopting an Ivy League model today. Except for that money thing, of course.
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Posturing, nothing more, nothing less. Notre Dame could moved down to Division II in time for the 2015-2016 academic year and be clustered with nothing but the like minded.
The problem is the reporters such as Dodd know that if they point that out to clowns such as Swarbrick they will never have access again.
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