Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I wish I stayed up late enough to catch the end of the Lakers-Suns thriller last night.
In today’s SI:AM:
📝 The NCAA’s proposed new structure
⚾ The Dodgers admit they’re interested in Ohtani
🇨🇦 Why Ohtani makes sense for the Blue Jays
Could this fix the NCAA?
The NCAA is at a crossroads. Since the April 2021 rule change permitting athletes to transfer without sitting out a year and the Supreme Court ruling that allowed college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness, the NCAA and its schools are grappling with how athletes’ new rights have fundamentally altered the college sports landscape. The ability for players to transfer freely and be paid has created something vaguely akin to free agency in college sports and drawn complaints from schools that don’t have the resources to keep up with the nation’s biggest athletic programs.
But the NCAA’s new president, former Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker, has proposed a solution. In a letter to member schools yesterday, Baker proposed creating a new NCAA subdivision that would allow schools to pay athletes directly.
Pat Forde has a thorough breakdown of Baker’s letter, but here are the main points:
- Schools in the new subdivision would “invest at least $30,000 per year into an enhanced educational trust fund for at least half of the institution’s eligible student-athletes.”
- Members of the new subdivision would come together to create their own rules on matters such as scholarships, roster size, recruitment, transfers and NIL.
- The NCAA championship structure would remain unchanged, with members of the new subdivision competing for the same championships as other members of Division I.
Part of the problem here is that the NCAA has been asking Congress to draft legislation to govern NIL at the federal level. In the absence of a concrete legal framework, the implementation of NIL has been messy, as Michael Rosenberg wrote about yesterday. Schools are not allowed to use NIL deals in recruiting, but everyone knows that still happens. Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule said last week that “a good quarterback in the [transfer] portal costs $1 million to $1.5 million to $2 million right now.” A new subdivision for the richest programs could tailor an NIL solution, rather than attempting to create a one-size-fits-all solution that attempts to fit the needs of Ohio State and Bowling Green. Creating a separate set of rules for big spenders would also eliminate the risk that marquee programs would want to split off from the NCAA and create a new governing body.
Baker’s proposal could also solve Title IX issues. Placing schools in charge of athlete compensation instead of third-party NIL collectives would help ensure that male and female athletes are on a level playing field. Last week, 32 female athletes at Oregon filed a lawsuit alleging Title IX violations, including that they are not given NIL opportunities.
But Baker’s proposal is not without potential downsides. Requiring schools to invest $30,000 for hundreds of athletes is a serious expense. As Forde says in his story, at Texas that would equate to a minimum of $10.5 million per year. The easiest way to lower that number would be to reduce the number of athletes at the school, thus eliminating some Olympic sports.
It’s clear that the NCAA has serious issues that are in need of fixing. Whether Baker’s proposal is taken seriously remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain: Significant change is coming to the NCAA sooner rather than later.
The best of Sports Illustrated
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
- While Shohei Ohtani’s free agency has been kept strategically under wraps, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts admitted yesterday that the team has spoken with him. Stephanie Apstein wrote about the cloak-and-dagger race to sign Ohtani.
- Tom Verducci lays out five reasons why Ohtani signing with the Blue Jays would make sense.
- Albert Breer looks at how the Bengals developed backup quarterback Jake Browning into a player capable of breaking out on Monday Night Football.
- Matt Verderame takes stock of the NFL MVP race, with a few quarterbacks emerging as the favorites.
- The Magic—yes, the Magic—are in the top five of Chris Mannix’s latest NBA power rankings.
- A month into the college basketball season, four freshmen are taking the women’s game by storm, Clare Brennan writes.
- The rival Yankees and Red Sox pulled off just their seventh trade in the last 50 years.
- The Dolphins might play a game in South America next season.
The top five...
… things I saw last night:
5. LeBron James and Anthony Davis mic’d up on the bench talking strategy.
4. Damian Lillard’s 13 straight points at the end of the first half against the Knicks.
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s postgame interview when he learned that players get money for making the in-season tournament semifinals.
2. The controversial timeout call that helped the Lakers beat the Suns in the in-season tournament.
1. The unbelievable spot where the puck landed during the Predators-Blackhawks game.
SIQ
Which of the following cities did not apply for an NHL expansion franchise before the league awarded teams to Tampa and Ottawa on this day in 1990?
- Milwaukee
- Seattle
- San Diego
- Denver
Yesterday’s SIQ: How many minutes did it take Klay Thompson to score a career-high 60 points Dec. 5, 2016?
- 23
- 29
- 33
- 38
Answer: 29. Thompson had a preposterous 40 at halftime and added another 20 in the third quarter before going to the bench with 1:22 left in the quarter. Both teams’ starters sat out the entire fourth quarter of the Warriors’ 142–106 win over the Pacers.
Thompson scored his 60 points on 21-of-33 shooting, though he was a mere 8-of-14 from three. (He’s had 23 games in his career with at least eight made threes.)
There have been only five NBA players to score at least 50 points in 30 minutes of playing time or less. Thompson is the only one to do it twice (he also had 52 in 27 minutes Oct. 29, 2018).
