This Summer, College sports underwent one of it's biggest changes yet when the House Vs NCAA case was finally settled. Among the many changes to the landscape of college sports was the arrival of revenue sharing as programs now have the ability to pay their players directly. NIL payments came from outside parties but, the athletes are now cut in on the money the schools are earning for the first time ever.
Revenue Sharing arriving in College Football will only help calm some of the chaos with NIL as it gives schools a clear path to money which will help some of the schools without the massive boosters. Each NIL deal now needs to be cleared by a third party which will help ensure that NIL is being used the way it's supposed to be rather than teams just buying players.
In order to keep some of the chaos under control in College Sports, many have called for the sport to start using collective bargaining as the professional leagues do. While that change hasn't arrived at the college level yet, it could be the next massive shift in the near future.
This week while attending Big 12 Media Days, Mike Gundy appeared on The Andy & Ari On3 Podcast where he called for everyone to finally restructure and admit that the athletes are now employees this way the College model can start to match the NFL model.
"You've gotta restructure your systems and admit players are employees, then you can build collective bargaining. We've all talked about it. But you have to admit they're employees. You can do it all. You can have a [salary cap] and you need an entry level for a high school player coming in because it's not sustainable."Mike Gundy
Given the recent events in college athletics, Mike Gundy's sentiment has never been more true but, changes may be far down the line. When the athletes were receiving NIL payments, they weren't technically employees of the school as other outlets were paying them but, after the House Settlement brought revenue sharing into College Football, the schools now directly pay their athletes.
Everyone saw with the House Vs NCAA Settlement how long these cases and changes take to clear the courts and then actually get implemented by the NCAA. It's clear that athletes should now be considered employees like in every other sport where the players get paid but, every party involved may not want to push for the changes.