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?