It was a good idea — at the time. A sound idea. A well-meaning idea.

Thirty-five years ago — doesn’t 1989 seem like the Paleolithic Era for college sports? — the NCAA created the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. It was to be a web of student athletes representing every member institution and conference. Collectively, SAAC would offer input on activities and proposed legislation with the goal of enhancing and protecting the student-athlete experience.

That was the plan.

It was a good idea. A necessary idea that served a needed purpose at its time.

Now, it’s an idea whose time has passed. (That no longer serves the most prescient needs of today’s college athletes).

College sports is in the nascent years of an era when student athletes are exercising historic influence over their experience. Thanks to pressure from state laws and court rulings, they’re finally able to control and earn money from their name, image, and likeness through deals with businesses and collectives funded by supporters.

They’re also enjoying almost unfettered control of where they perform through the transfer portal. Many hopscotch teams in search of playing time (so they hope), and/or money.

College sports is the wild, wild everywhere with athletic directors, coaches, student athletes and boosters operating within a shifting ecosystem with few regulations.

It’s about to get worse — or better, at least for student athletes.

In October, a headline-making $2.8 billion settlement agreed to by the NCAA and Power Five conferences in the consolidation of three class-action antitrust lawsuits........

© Sports Business Journal