About

College sports are a uniquely American invention steeped in tradition – the U.S. is the only country in the world that allows young adults to pursue their athletic dreams while also pursuing an education. However, the college sports world needs to evolve to compete and thrive in the 21st century. The Alston and House cases are just the beginning of the foundational change that’s underway. College football in its current structure poses an existential threat to football and all other college sports. 

We believe …

• This is the beginning of a period of upheaval for college sports. Universities, student-athletes, donors, coaches, fans, and media partners are losing out under the existing outdated structure, which is becoming financially impractical and legally indefensible with each passing day. Without intervention, these factors will ultimately prove to be the demise of intercollegiate athletics as we have come to know them.
• Revenues generated from football underwrite other intercollegiate sports so schools can offer a broad portfolio of sports. College football helps fund the pipeline for our country’s Olympic program and Women’s sports.
• College sports should be self-sustaining and never drain resources from the primary mission of education and academics.
• The partnership between schools and football student-athletes should involve a league to directly pay football student-athletes under work rules negotiated at a national level with a players association and in compliance with Title IX and state law in right-to-work states.
• Competitive balance between schools benefits all stakeholders, unlike under the current system with unlimited NIL and free agency. Reasonable competitive balance and a level playing field grow interest and ratings, which are essential for reaching the requisite minimum economics to cover rising costs and still have enough left over to fund other college sports.
• A single, unified college football league – the College Student Football League (“CSFL”) – would enable America’s favorite sport and its deeply cherished traditions to continue to flourish and grow amid unprecedented change.

The CSFL gives the sport an opportunity to create and build a better football product that is more competitive, engages and benefits more schools and media partners, and better rewards football student-athletes. Under the CSFL:

• Smaller, tighter geographic divisions, plus non-division games against schools with a similar record the prior season, would mean more schools would be in the hunt deeper into the season.
• League scheduling would ensure great matchups and competitive games while restoring traditional geographic rivalries.
• Results on the field would dictate playoff participation instead of the current politics, allowing more fan engagement, in more parts of the country, longer.
• NIL and transfer portal rules would be the product of negotiations between the CSFL and an association representing football student-athletes (whether or not they are deemed employees) focused on finding the proper balance between:
  • Protecting football student-athletes’ freedom of choice and economics; and
  • Maintaining a level playing field, which drives economics in the first place.
• Each school would own a percentage of the new single-entity, not outside interests. This centralized football league would be able to better coordinate and orchestrate telecasts so fans are better served.
• Major sponsors would also benefit from being able to more easily invest in college football with “one-stop-shop” opportunities like the ones they have with professional sports leagues.
• Incremental revenue from streamlined and better-coordinated media deals, which also enhance access for fans, would be reinvested in rewarding football student-athletes and providing benefits like health care.

The new College Student Football League would apply only to football and would include all 136 of the current Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools, with the top 72 programs competing in one conference and the remaining 64 facing off in a second conference with the opportunity to “play up” into the upper division.

All other college sports would remain in the current conference system and financially benefit from growing college football ratings, revenue, and engagement.