Unlimited transportation must be an essential issue for athletics leaders in the college. Why not repair it?

New Orleans – They met here, leaders of the most powerful conference in college sports, and talked about the future. There was new optimism that they started collecting all changes in university athletics to find out things.

“We have a chance to build a new model here and get it correctly,” said Keith Carter, Ole Miss Sports Director.

However, they did not talk, by all standards, about the real solution. They don’t seem to talk about the only basic problem and how it is solved. This meeting was held for SEC, Big Ten Commissioners and sports managers away from a bloc of casino, and the way they approach the future, whether they realize this or not, is a giant gamble.

There is only one serious and comprehensive issue that negatively affects everyone, from the teams to the coaches to the fans to the players: unlimited transfer operations. There is one confirmed way to return to a reasonable system: collective negotiation with some entity that represents athletes. It may not be a union in itself, and players may not have to be official. Only some entity that negotiates the rules that may not be great for both sides, but it has enough giving and taking advantage of the total sport.

And most importantly, steadfastness in court.

Instead, all those concerned are going in the opposite direction. They press for federal legislation and hope to protect them. They suffer from the completion of the coming NCAA VS. House, which will bring revenue sharing with athletes, but also ways they think can combat duties for name, image and proverb. They exchange ideas about the creative ways to discourage players from taking advantage of the gate every year – sometimes twice a year – whether it is with contract items or the transition from two transport windows to one.

The actual transport rules, the ability to leave at any time and not to sit in a season, no longer a discussion point, after the courts destroyed them.

“We will not return to the place where things were before, and this is the period.” “We have said it. I said that to the coaches. Now this does not mean that this leads to a warm embrace.”

So the discussion revolves around working on margins mainly, instead of comprehensive reform. Or they see that reform – labor and collective negotiation – as a greater problem of unlimited transportation. This is misleading.

The ability to benefit from the portal to get a better deal – at any time – is the main issue from which all other real problems arise. It is painful to try fans, and not knowing who your favorite team will have from year to year. It is a headache for coaches. Even for players, it can disturb development or lead to short -term decisions damaged in the long run. It is not good to play for four different teams in four years.

For a short period, the right rule was in place: the players get one free transfer, one opportunity to go to a new school without having to sit a year. But he was transferred again, and they have to sit. They can have Mulligans in the case of training changes. Everyone is in a fair rule, better than my old days, but stopping the continuous movement that is not good for anyone.

So what happened? The courts, who said that such rules were an unfair seizure of athletes’ ability to benefit from their rights in Nil. NCAA fought at the beginning, but since then he surrendered. At least part of that. Now, banking services are made for federal legislation and internal options: background conditions in contracts that require athletes to pay the school they leave. NIL multi -contract. Maybe you will work. Perhaps everything will settle. But it is a long -term gamble.

Federal legislation is still subject to court challenges. You can see this already playing: Congress is a law that allows NCAA to set its own civil rules and prevent athletes from being employees. It is not a certain thing, since it will take enough support from the two parties to avoid the Senate virus, but let’s say this is happening. Even so, this may be a temporary victory for a good lawyer to challenge the law as a trade control, the same reason that the courts have already dropped these rules in the first place.

As for NIL contracts, will the players and their agents pay more than one year deals until they keep the annual financial lever? We may see that the gate movement stabilizes for a year or two, but in the end as long as there is an unlimited transfer base, the issue will wave on the horizon. Freedom of movement is what affects the market more. Contracts and collective negotiation, giving and taking between teams and players, are great stabilizers, as professionals know.

But the college leaders are postponing it. Collective bargaining is the last resort. The idea of ​​employees athletes is a third railway, and what they press for Congress to legislate against them. It may work, especially in the current political climate. Perhaps they will get short -term rest.

Most likely, this delays inevitable. The college leaders do not have a busy record in reading the scene. They think they get it properly this time. Let’s see how it works.

(Photo: C. Morgan Engil / NCAA photos via Getty Images)