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KEY QUOTES FROM JUNE 11 SESSION
Gene Smith, Senior Vice President and Wolfe Foundation Endowed Athletic Director, The Ohio State University, on the need for a different mindset:
“...at the end of the day, we need to change our thought process. It's not about a scholarship. It's not about Alston money. It's not about NIL. It's not about revenue share. It's a damn compensation package. And we need to get to that. And everybody should be compensated differently, whether that includes NIL or not. But it's a different compensation package. We need to start talking that way, because that's what it is, and face reality with it.”
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Janet Cone, Senior Administrator for University Enterprises and Director of Athletics, UNC Asheville, and President, Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association, on the plan created by the Division I-AAA and FCS Athletics Directors Associations:
“…we initiated collaboration to create a defensible model of college sports that fit our subdivisions. Our goal is to create a sustainable model that is philosophically and legally defensible, and we keep our subdivisions competing in Division I. Let me say that again: Our goal is to stay in Division I, compete at the highest level with broad-based championships, and also receive shared athletic revenues.”
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Anthony Egbo, Jr., Vice-Chair Elect of the Division I national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee; former FCS football athlete and current MBA student, Abilene Christian University, on greater athlete involvement in policy and governance:
“So what we're talking about is a system, a sustainable system of powerful student-athlete legislation advocacy that provides student-athletes the opportunity to influence the decisions over our direct experiences … that works inside the governance system and that does not trigger employee status.”
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Dr. Judy Olian, President, Quinnipiac University, and Knight Commission member, on the House case settlement terms:
“While the NCAA itself and the Power 4 are bearing significant costs in absolute dollar terms, the Power 4 concurrently will benefit from the windfall football broadcast revenues that flow to the Power 4 that position them financially to be able to share revenue, raise scholarship rosters, and offset the cost of the settlement. The non-football conferences and teams won't be benefiting from the football broadcast windfall, and in percentage of budget terms, the mid-major conferences and schools are carrying as high, and sometimes a higher burden than the Power 4. That's what one New York Times commentator called ‘financial Darwinism,’ survival of the fittest, or should we say, the richest.”
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Jacques McClendon, Vice President for Football Coaching Operations at WME Sports; former SEC and NFL player; and Knight Commission member, on the student-athlete experience:
“...now, we're making decisions that are based off – purely – financials. And at the end of the day, that's the difference between being – let's call it transactional – (vs.) transformational. The college student-athlete experience is supposed to be transformational, and we need to keep that at heart.
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Tom Moreland, Chief Commercial Officer, University of Illinois, on the need for different FBS football governance to regulate the new financial model:
“...to really have effective regulation, whether it's the public sector, the private sector, anything that is hyper-competitive like college athletics is – aligning regulation with authority, responsibility, and financial control … I think has shown to work really well across all industries.”
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