For months now, as college athletics leaders prepare for a world in which athletes will share revenue, they have made decisions consistent with an industry that is breaking free from its shell of amateurism and evolving into a more professionalized entity.
Schools are hiring general managers to oversee their staffs, capologists to properly distribute cash, and consultants to find untapped avenues to generate revenue. Many of them are altering the entire structure of athletic departments, including the creation of college scouting departments.
They are increasing ticket sales, placing corporate sponsors in their stadiums and even exploring private equity, all in an effort to produce new revenue to distribute to players.
But perhaps the most significant sign yet of the evolution of college athletics can be found precisely in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick, 72, has been hired as head coach, a surprising decision and a defining moment in an industry that is quickly turning professional.
Belichick’s weeklong courtship at North Carolina ended with an agreement Wednesday between the school and the coach. While shocking to many, the hiring is understandable and timely given the state of college sports.
Belichick knows professional baseball.
University is not so different anymore.
In fact, in seven months, college athletics takes another giant leap into the professional world: Schools are allowed to begin paying players directly under a salary cap-type system tied to the NCAA’s settlement of three antitrust lawsuits. .
Already, ahead of the July 1 implementation date, programs are already offering guaranteed financial packages to players, with some even sending school-issued income share documents to recruits. Most of these contracts focus on the purchase of an athlete’s commercial and sponsorship rights, and some of them are even multi-year agreements with purchase terms. Schools must stay within a cap, projected for now at $20.5 million in Year 1.
Contracts.
A salary cap.
Exploration departments and capologists.
Sound familiar?
Soon, the only thing separating major college football from the NFL is the tether to higher education (they still have to go to classes!) and the absence of employment (they haven’t been considered employees yet). Even college recruiting is changing. Players and their parents are not necessarily courted through visits to their homes or trips to campus. These are often transactional relationships with guaranteed cash in the hundreds of thousands of dollars (for elite QBs, that figure is often in the millions).
Belichick arrives in Chapel Hill as a master of professional baseball. He won a half-dozen Super Bowls and 302 games in 29 years as an NFL head coach. Despite his age (UNC fired a 73-year-old for a man a year younger), the former Patriots leader is more well-versed in managing a professional roster than any college football coach.
With chances of returning to a professional franchise limited or nonexistent, Belichick spent most of his year off this season studying the college game. That was evident during a wide-ranging interview on “The Pat McAfee Show” when he detailed the impending change in the college game.
He had clearly spoken to college coaches (perhaps his good friend, Nick Saban) and read about the impending deal that ushers in this era of revenue sharing.
“Many universities are looking at NFL-type models to structure personnel and training,” he told McAfee. “Clearly, the job is too big for one person. “You need a general manager, a coach and someone responsible for the salary cap.”
For North Carolina, the move is bold but, perhaps, prescient.
The Tar Heels program is sure to undergo a complete overhaul in the coming months. During his interview with McAfee, Belichick made it pretty clear: He would bring an NFL mentality and structure to Chapel Hill.
There will be awkward moments and there may even be power struggles.
After all, while working with McAfee, Belichick suggested that his conversations with North Carolina officials focused on the “structure” of the football program and “who reports to whom,” he said.
His hiring could completely alter the way many college programs operate, if it works. Perhaps this pursuit of coaching is a window into how things might work in the future. It’s no secret that influential members of the board of directors became involved in the search, perhaps even directing it toward Belichick.
It is believed that the coach presented a list of demands and guarantees before accepting the position, surely focused on income distribution figures and the hierarchical order of power.
To whom do I answer?
How much money can I pay players?
Last week, before his team played in the ACC championship game, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked about the potential hiring of Belichick.
“That would be a great story,” he smiled.
Quite a story? Is he history of college football, and it probably won’t happen without he Another story in the industry.
Say goodbye to the college football you once knew.
These are now the minor leagues.