Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith made a bold suggestion this Tuesday regarding the future of college football. He suggested the 10 FBS conferences operate outside of the NCAA’s structure and work under the umbrella of the College Football Playoff.
“We [can] create our own rules, create our own governance structure, have our own enforcement, we have our own requirements, whatever that might be,” Smith said, via ESPN. ” … That might be in the medical space, for example, if a student-athlete is injured and hurt in his or her senior year. You take care of them when they’re done until they’re healed. And we have the funding in place to do that. You don’t touch anything else with the NCAA. You keep the academic requirements in place. The reality is, those schools who offer 85 scholarships in football have made a different commitment and that needs to be addressed.”‘
Smith believes schools that offer 85 scholarships need a different set of rules. He claims his idea has received mixed reviews from his peers.
The college football world, meanwhile, isn’t entirely against this idea. There are some fans who find Smith’s suggestion quite interesting.
On the other hand, there are a few fans who believe this suggestion would mark the “beginning of the end” for the NCAA.
The landscape of college sports has changed, there’s no doubt about that.
Is college football ready to operate under its own umbrella though? That question remains unanswered.