CSNbbs

Here's the scenario.

32 of the most powerfull football programs in the NCAA, including some members from each of the P5 conferences, decide they've had enough of the NCAA. Notre Dame reluctantly agrees to join them, seeing the handwriting on the wall about how national champions would be determined in the future.

But there are obstacles and pitfalls that make breaking away from the NCAA problematic. So they decide to lobby Congress to pass legislation to resolve those obstacles.

Their legislative goals are:

1. Enable them to compensate some (but not all) athletes without making the business of college sports a taxable enterprise or running afoul of EEOC or Title IX laws and regulations.

2. Ensure that, if they compensate players directly, or if third parties compensate them for NIL, those athletes are not deemed to be employees of the school, but rather independent contractors.

3. Ensure that athletes who do receive compensation for playing their sport are not taxed on any portion of their scholarship benefits, including tuition, fees, books, housing, meals and a uniform standard per diem for incidentals now termed "full cost of attendance".

Having achieved all these goals, they decide to create and become charter members of a new non-profit organization which they call the National Intercollegiate Football Association (NIFA). The bylaws of this organization provide that other schools can become new members by invitation of 75% of the existing members.

The 32 charter members organize themselves into two conferences of 16 teams in what will be known as the Masters Division: The SEC and The Big 16 (B1G). Those conferences each divide into these two 8 team divisions (teams are listed in order of their 10 year average Sagarin rating):

SEC East: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Auburn, Florida State, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.

SEC West: LSU, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Missouri, Texas, Ole Miss and Arkansas.

B1G East: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Iowa and Nebraska.

B1G West: Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Southern Cal, Arizona State, UCLA, Arizona and California.

Each of these conferences will stage a four team playoff involving the top two teams in each division based only on their 7 game round robin schedule. The first round winners in the SEC will play for their conference championship on New Years' Day at the Sugar Bowl, while the B1G winners will do the same at the Rose Bowl. The two bowl winners will play each other at the Masters Bowl at Jerry World a week later.

Having decided how they will organize, they then agree to invite all the remaining schools that are currently members of P5 conferences, plus 9 other teams to become members in a University Division of the NIFA. These 42 schools will be organized into conferences as follows (G5 callups in bold):

Big XII: Oklahoma State, TCU, Kansas State, Baylor, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis and Kansas.

Big Ten: Northwestern, Minnesota, Iowa State, Indiana, Maryland, Purdue, Illinois and Rutgers.

Big Eastern Football Conference (BEFC): Virginia Tech, Miami, Louisville, Pitt, Central Florida, Boston College, Syracuse and Temple.

ACC: Georgia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest.

PAC: Boise State, Utah, BYU, Washington State, San Diego State, Oregon State, Colorado and Fresno State.

The University Division will stage an 8 team postseason playoff consisting of the 5 conference champions (based on round robin conference play only) plus the three highest ranked teams that finish second in their conference. The four highest ranked champions will host the first round games, and the semifinals will be played on New Years' Day at the Orange Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. The University Division championship game will be played at the Sugar Bowl in prime time the night before the Masters Division championship.

All NIFA members will be required to play at least 10 games against other NIFA opponents. Once NIFA membership is finalized, the 74 members will organize and become charter members of a second new organization, the National Intercollegiate Men's Basketball Association (NIMBA). By vote of 75% of the members, other schools will be invited to join them. Most of those will come from the Big East, Atlantic 10, West Coast Conference, MWC, and Missouri Valley Conference, though any school that gets 75% of the votes can be invited.

In both the NIFA and the NIMBA, media contracts will be negotiated as a single entity, with all member schools sharing revenue from media and postseason bowls or tournaments equally, after deducting expenses for conducting the tournaments or bowls, for providing and training officials and other administrative expenses of each organization. Individual schools will retain media rights for all games played against non NIFA or NIMBA opponents.

All other sports will be conducted either by the NCAA or by the national governing bodies for each sport.

In my NIFA and NIMBA, all scholarships would be a six year commitment by the school to the recruit. Athletes would have five years of eligibility, starting when he first enrolls, with no redshirts or grayshirts for any reason. During those first five years, athletes would earn $20K for each year they are academically eligible. That money would be paid by their school and held in escrow until they have used up their eligibility or leave the school. If an athlete leaves his team or school before completing 3 years of service, he forfeits those payments.

Athletes would be allowed one transfer to another member school. If he leaves in his first three years, his first school owes him nothing. After three years, he can collect his escrowed earnings, but cannot earn any more from his new school.

Each school would be required to report annually to the Association all payments made by third parties to their athletes, including the names of the individuals or companies who made them. For their part, the athletes and their families must agree to report such earnings, and permit an independent auditor to verify them by examining their income tax returns.

The Association would issue an annual public report showing how much in aggregate each payer gave to players of each school. That report wouldn't identify how much each individual player received.

A player is considered academically eligible if he has successfully completed 1/6th of the credit hours required for graduation each year prior to the start of the season. That is, if the school reuires 126 credit hours, the student must have earned at least 21 hoursin his first year, 42 by the end of his second, etc..

Each year, member schools would undergo (and pay for) a compliance audit by a firm approved by the association. That audit would certify the completeness and accuracy of the school's report of payments received by their athletes, and verify that all athletes were academically eligible for every game in which they played. Those audits pretty much eliminate the need for a separate compliance staff at the Association level.