NCAA D1-A Autonomy And What It Means To The Average Fan

     It means things are going to change, and I mean potentially big changes. Don't worry, the same 10-15 big name schools will still be the ones winning the championships, however there will most likely be a new championship being played. This new championship will allow the mid-majors an opportunity to compete for a trophy and potentially added revenue. Granted this added revenue won't be of the former BCS level, but it will be a slight boost. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me back up and tell you how I got to this conclusion.

     First off, autonomy will be a step in the right direction for a small minority of student-athletes. To start, this will affect most athletes at the major universities, i.e. increased scholarship limits in sports such as baseball, softball, and other minor sports. This will really impact college football. This will allow universities to provide stipends to support full cost of attendance, medical coverage, and many more benefits. This will effectively toe the line of amateur athletics. After a few years of this passes and everyone realizes that attendance/viewership doesn't drop, more steps will be taken to push the student-athletes of the power 5 conferences toward semi-professionals. This will further separate the power 5 from the mid-majors and the rest of the NCAA. Once there is a full separation of the power 5 from the NCAA, these schools will be able to treat athletes as a sort of employee. Paid partly in education and partly in on field performance. This, of course, is something that happens roughly 10-15 years down the road.

     The benefit to the mid-major schools is a chance to compete for their own championship and potentially added revenue from increased bowl games. This doesn't mean there will be more bowl games overall, just more access to bowl games for the mid-major schools. The power 5 will eventually turn their respective conference championship games into a sort of bowl game/playoff game while eventually expanding the playoffs themselves. With an entirely new subdivision of NCAA football, there will be even less incentive to play the lower subdivisions within the NCAA. Thereby shortening the regular season while expanding the playoffs. Playoff expansion could extend into the conferences themselves, meaning a four team playoff for the conference championship. Explaining the feasibility of this idea is another article unto itself.

     All of these ideas/predictions could just be the day dreaming of a crazed lunatic, or maybe some of it comes true. Either way, feedback is always welcomed. Let the debates begin!