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The Knight Commission, a reform-minded college sports watchdog group, has officially made a recommendation that many college football fans have made over the last few years: FBS football teams and the College Football Playoff should separate from the NCAA.
According to CBS Sports, the new football entity that would be formed would be called the National College Football Association made up of all 130 current FBS schools.
The funding aspect of the pitch is perhaps the most interesting piece here. The NCFA would be funded by the College Football Playoff itself. It would manage every issue imaginable including education, health, safety, litigation, eligibility, enforcement, and revenue distribution.
This would leave college basketball as the only major revenue-generating sports at the Division I level for the NCAA. The NCAA would still manage all aspects of other college sports, but without football, the financial hit would be astronomical.
The Knight Commission recommendation has been in the works for quite some time. It’s had its frustrations with FBS and specifically Power Five conferences and their advantages when it comes to NCAA voting issues and revenue distribution.
The idea of college football teams, particularly Power Five programs, leaving the NCAA is nothing new but the thought has certainly been more closely looked at with the bizarre year that has been 2020. To say there is a lack of confidence in the NCAA is an understatement. You’d be tough to find anyone that believes the NCAA will ever get it completely right when it comes to its amateurism model and paying student-athletes an adequate amount for their name, image, and likeness.
Student-athletes have been getting the short end of the stick for decades now and there seems to be real movement on their behalf of trying to get a piece of the pie they deserve. It’s going to turn into a battle at the table between athletes and the NCAA about how big that piece of pie should be and chances are it’s not going to be a big enough piece to please student-athletes.
The Knight Commission’s recommendations are set to be presented to the NCAA Presidential Forum at a later date.