College sports is facing a season marked by legal challenges and internal disputes over player eligibility and conference governance. This comes as the NCAA and its member institutions grapple with the fallout from recent court rulings and evolving player compensation models.
The week leading up to the start of the season saw disputes involving major conferences and individual teams. The Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Louisiana State University (LSU) were at the center of a legal conflict concerning the eligibility of players who had previously signed with professional teams. Simultaneously, the Big 12 conference engaged in litigation against one of its own members, Texas Tech, over an eligibility issue.
These legal entanglements are occurring against a backdrop of broader discussions about the future structure of college athletics, including proposals for "conference-led governance" and legislative efforts in Congress aimed at addressing the sport's challenges.
Manny Diaz, head football coach at Duke, acknowledged the financial benefits players can now receive but stressed the fundamental difference between college sports and professional franchises. "We are not a professional sports franchise. We are a collegiate, scholastic school activity, and we’ve got to rein that in," Diaz said, reflecting a sentiment that the collegiate nature of the activity must be preserved.
Barbara Osborne, a professor specializing in NCAA governance, emphasized the distinction: "The difference between a professional sports league and collegiate athletics is literally night and day." She pointed out that most colleges are public institutions where athletics departments are part of a larger academic mission, governed by academics and researchers rather than solely by financial imperatives as in professional sports.
In response to the NCAA's recent five-year eligibility rule, which impacted last year's graduating class, the Big Ten and SEC implemented policies barring players from returning after leaving for professional careers. The Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) soon followed with similar measures. However, LSU, with reported plans to bring back players who had turned professional, showed no immediate signs of altering its course, prompting a declaration from Louisiana's governor to "Don't hate the player, hate the game."
The Big 12's lawsuit against Texas Tech, filed in June, was precipitated by quarterback Brendan Sorsby's admission of a gambling addiction. Sorsby eventually withdrew from college, but the lawsuit persisted, stemming from a state court order that had temporarily permitted him to play despite NCAA prohibitions against players gambling on sports.
Courts are increasingly influencing the landscape of college sports eligibility. Plaintiffs' attorneys have reportedly been effective in finding sympathetic judges, with more than 30 cases currently involving nearly 400 athletes. Many of these cases challenge the fairness of NCAA rules that exclude athletes from the high school Class of 2022, particularly as Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals and revenue sharing offer financial incentives not available to previous generations.
NCAA senior vice president Tim Buckley criticized the use of local judges to circumvent conference rules, stating, "College sports are supposed to be a launching pad to careers, not a fallback for professional athletes who already competed throughout their time in college."
Numerous figures, including senators, governors, commissioners, judges, lawyers, regents, and the President of the United States, have attempted to resolve the issues plaguing college sports without success in stemming the tide of litigation.
A significant factor is the absence of a federal antitrust exemption, a feature common to most professional sports leagues, which has left the NCAA vulnerable to legal challenges for decades. Early legal battles, notably concerning players' rights to endorsement money starting around 2009, forced institutions to confront new revenue generation and cost control strategies.
Tyrone Thomas, an attorney advising universities on compliance, noted that while public support exists for core principles of college athletics, the current system is relatively new and still developing. "We need some rules that are enforceable within the system that we're in. But we're in a system that's only been around for less than a half-dozen years," Thomas said, urging perspective on the current state compared to the past.
A Senate bill is currently under consideration that aims to grant the NCAA limited protection against lawsuits concerning issues like eligibility rulemaking. Without such legislative action, the volatility and legal disputes witnessed in recent weeks are likely to continue.
Two foundational principles of college sports—that participants are not professionals and do not gamble on games—are being tested. The financial realities of student-athlete compensation and the presence of gambling company sponsorships on campuses further complicate these established norms.
Thomas suggested that the current wave of litigation, primarily focused on the five-year eligibility rule and affecting a limited group of 2022 high school graduates, may not represent the most critical long-term challenges. "There are definitely ‘fire’ issues. But I don't look at the essential ‘house-on-fire’ issue that's going to determine how things move forward," he remarked.