“Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome,” said Warren Buffett’s partner Charlie Munger. The next tsunami in elite college sports probably hits July 1, with the anticipated House settlement. We are not college sports administrators, but we do understand sports business. As college athletics becomes more professionalized, we believe athletic directors need to think: vision, best practices and providing the right incentives for their students and institutions.

For starters, the sky isn’t falling. Intercollegiate athletics remains crucial to all who participate, watch and cheer — and consider matriculating. College football is more popular than ever; men’s and especially women’s basketball are ascending, as are women’s sports such as softball, volleyball and gymnastics, which fuel Olympic sports globally. Sports media value and importance continues growing.

Thus, July 1 presents an opportunity to think differently.

A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is in order. But that begs the question: What is your vision for sports on your campus? Presuming you opt into the settlement, do you plan to follow the guidelines (75% for football, 15% men’s basketball, 5% women’s basketball and 5% to everything else) deploying the $20.5 million revenue-sharing payment cap to athletes? If so, you’re committing to the football arms race, transfer portal, heavy travel and spending the vast majority of your cap on male athletes.

Is that sustainable, especially for leading academic institutions (e.g., Duke, Northwestern, Stanford) that have high admissions........

© Sports Business Journal