NCAA settlement may unsettle fans, but they’ll still devour the finished product

When the NCAA agreed to bulldoze college sports as we’ve known them last week, I immediately thought of an old friend named Bill.

He swore that if a certain candidate were elected president, he’d move to Canada. That candidate won, but Bill called U-Haul.

The disruption in college sports this decade has spawned a lot of Bills. They’re disillusioned over conferences imploding, NIL madness and players hopscotching from school to school.

Then last week, the NCAA stopped even trying to stick its fingers in what’s left of the dyke. Facing lawsuits it could not win, the great defender of amateurism said athletes should get paid.

It’s about time, considering the whole college sports industrial complex would collapse without laborers. The initial checks will amount to $2.8 billion, and that’s just the start. Schools will pony up about $20 million a year to jocks under the House vs. NCAA settlement.

For the Bills out there, it should have been the final straw, the coup de grace, the epochal event that makes them move their interests to Manitoba, or wherever high school quarterbacks aren’t offered $13.8 million to throw passes for State U.

I haven’t been to any U-Haul shops, but I’d bet the phones haven’t been ringing.

That’s not to say the Bills aren’t sincere in their disgust. And, assuming a judge approves the settlement, it leaves us with plenty of troubling questions. Among them…

How will schools come up with the dough?

Can you say Steve Spurrier-Publix Field at Ben Hill Griffin-Tupperware Stadium?

The big boys have the means, though they’re saying it may require laying off staff, scaling back projects and even eliminating sports that don’t make money. If you love tennis or cross country, be worried.

Schools that don’t have $150 million budgets are either doomed or hoping fans will pay $5,000 for cookies at the weekly Save Our Sports bake sales.

Will ticket prices go up?

Is Canada cold in the winter?

How will schools divvy up the money?

It could be market-based, with football players getting the most. There might be a salary structure, though what happens if the starting QB loses his job? Schools will apparently come up with their own plans. All of them include a can opener and a huge can of worms.

Will Title IX apply?

Talk about worms. Legal experts disagree, but you can be sure more lawyers will get rich arguing the issue in court.

How will NILs fit into this?

Nobody knows. Even with a salary cap of sorts, players will get side deals. Differentiating between “endorsement” and an “inducement” might still cause the next Nick Saban to say the next Texas A&M bought its recruiting class.

Wouldn’t that infuriate Jimbo Fisher?

He’s too busy counting his $75 million buyout.

So, you’re saying the NCAA settlement won’t do anything to settle the turmoil in college sports?

Yes. I’m also saying that, ultimately, the collateral damage won’t matter to the average fan.

The NIL revolution and accompanying bewilderment began three years ago, and football has only gotten more popular.

That’s why the SEC’s $300-million-a-year TV deal that kicks in this fall is six times larger than the old one. That’s why Fox announced last week there will be a Big Ten game every Friday night.

That’s why Florida sold out five home games last year despite being mired in the worst losing-season streak since Joe Biden was in first grade.

That’s why the Alabama-Michigan playoff game had an average audience of 27.2 million viewers, making it the most watched non-NFL game since 2018.

Did we say playoffs?

As hyped as fans have been over the four-team format, wait until the 12-team playoff kicks in this year. That’s why ESPN is paying $1.3 billion a year to televise it.

After decades in denial, the NCAA is admitting that players deserve a slice of that pie. The details have been messy, and settlement leaves far more questions than answers.

But if you really want to trace how we got here, follow the money. Colleges now get billions in TV revenue.

Networks get that revenue from advertisers. Advertisers get that revenue from consumers. Consumers like my old friend Bill.

They may say they are fed up. They may threaten to take their entertainment appetite to Canada.

But come kickoff time, they can’t get enough.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DavidEWhitley

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: NCAA's billion dollar settlement won't cost it any fans