The old parable says: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” That may be the best way to describe what is happening in the business of college athletics right now.

For decades, athletic departments survived on some combination of wealthy donors, media rights growth, sponsors, and ticket sales. Then came NIL, revenue sharing and the latest wave of legal settlements that effectively added another $20 million-plus annual burden for schools trying to remain nationally competitive.

At first glance, the answer seems obvious: Look to scrape up more income from the same old sources by further tapping donors, sponsors and ticket buyers, while reducing costs anywhere possible — cutting Olympic sports and other “non-essentials.” But as Lee Corso would say: “Not so fast, my friend.” Many athletic departments are still operating in the red despite these efforts. Why? Because college athletics doesn’t have a cost problem nearly as much as it has a revenue problem.

There is no more obvious evidence of this than the dysfunction surrounding the College Sports Commission. The CSC was created as part of the House v. NCAA settlement to enforce NIL rules and revenue share compliance. Nearly nine months after schools were first asked to sign the participation agreement that gives the CSC its enforcement authority, most have still not done so. The Big 12 became the first Power Four conference to get full sign-on, and that was treated as a milestone.........

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