The “Power Five” movement is in full swing and seemingly gaining momentum. If you don’t know about the Power Five, it’s a collection of the biggest football conferences in the NCAA today who are lobbying to make their own rules and provisions without having to get the “Non-power rest of the NCAA” to approve what they want to do.
In essence, the right to make quicker decisions with fewer obstructions will potentially allow the Power Five more of a chance of paying the current college football players posing as amateur athletes a little more money in exchange for the ridiculous amounts of money these young men bring in to their respective schools each year. So as coaches like Nick Saban, Les Miles, Urban Meyer, and Steve Spurrier earn tens of millions of dollars in salary each year, the players on the front line might now be able to more quickly cash in a few extra dollars each month.
The Power Five alignment will prove to be one big step toward professionalizing college football, and honestly, that might not be a bad thing. If we’re being truthful, there’s nothing “amateur” about big-time college football these days, even though it continues to masquerade around as though it’s still the same game and philosophy that it has been for over 100 years. While multi-million dollar football facilities and stadiums are built, and coaches now regularly making several million dollars a year, the kids on the front line creating all of it have only been given the right to take free college classes (that many times lead to virtually meaningless, “eligibility” degrees). So, if the Power Five improves upon the current deal for student athletes, kudos, but it will also fundamentally change college football to look even more like pro football.
At the end of the day the Power Five will likely just be putting a band-aid on the issue as it impacts student athletes — throw the student athletes a few more dollars while the revenues grow exponentially for the administrators, coaches, and universities at-large. Still, it’s a small step toward a level playing field, and could open the door to more professionalization moves in the near future.
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