Watching College Athletics from Afar: A Strange, Chaotic New Era

The New Reality of College Athletics: Chaos, Change, and Uncertainty.

It’s been three years since I bid farewell to college sports coverage — and mind you, my focus was primarily on small colleges in New England, with the occasional “feel-good story” outside the region. While I began noticing cracks in the foundation back then, I’m seeing even more now — in some cases, they’re much bigger than they were in 2022.

College athletics is in a weird spot.

I use weird mildly — I’m sure there are other, far more dramatic ways to describe the chaos we’re witnessing from afar. But the field, like any, has changed. Perhaps for the worse? And I can’t hold back any longer.

Over the last five years, we’ve watched Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) explode — to the point where “big-time” athletic departments now employ roles like Assistant Director of NIL, which I literally had to confirm with a contact to make sure I wasn’t being pranked.

More money is being funneled into basketball and football than ever. We’re seeing increased movement among coaches and athletes — please don’t call them student-athletes — and now, most recently, a public-relations mess involving Notre Dame, which reacted to missing the College Football Playoff (CFP) like a spoiled child denied dessert.

Their response? Withdraw their name from a bowl game. Other schools quickly followed.

A moment of pause, please: Good grief.

Maybe this all seems normal to the casual fan, but to me — someone who once scrambled to leave the high school sports media space early in my career just for a shot at any Massachusetts college gig — everything feels chaotic. Maybe this is more than a messy room your mother told you to clean up in high school.

I also hear, more and more, about programs shifting from Division I to Division III (see: Saint Francis University), and I’m sure more will follow in the coming years. Why? Because keeping up with this ever-evolving landscape — which now includes forms of profit-sharing through ticket sales, media rights, and more — is simply no longer feasible for some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ixexyc-n1A

It also feels as though today’s athletes — again, not student-athletes — are leaning harder into content creation and social media. They want to build brands, monetize themselves, and parlay fame into something bigger, whether on a professional roster or in the business world. Five or ten years ago, winning the next game seemed like the main priority. Now? It’s hard to tell.

And while CFP debates and coaching carousel drama — hello, Lane Kiffin — dominate the discourse, the hot takes just keep coming. I even saw a recent LinkedIn post suggesting Ivy League schools should possibly compete in Week 0. I’m not sure Robin Harris, Executive Director of the Ivy League, would be thrilled by that idea.

As some friends and colleagues have wisely reminded me: unless you’re in the room with key stakeholders or inside the NCAA offices in Indianapolis, it’s best to keep your opinions to yourself — and maybe off Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and yes, even LinkedIn.

Because while the headlines revolve around Division I football and men’s basketball, the challenges facing college athletics extend across all three divisions. Division II and III programs rarely get attention, despite some recently partnering with FloSports in hopes of elevating their brand or conference footprint. Important conversations about FCS football or Division II lacrosse often get buried beneath the 24/7 megaphone of “big-time” athletics.

The truth is college sports — at every level — is imperfect. It’s messy, political, and increasingly commercialized. Yet there are still people doing the work who genuinely love it. That’s what I tell anyone hoping to break into the field: reach out to a nearby college. Run the scoreboard for a hockey game. Help with soccer game day. You’ll meet passionate people who keep this chaotic ecosystem running, often for little recognition and even less money.

And maybe that’s what keeps me tethered to all of this, despite the noise: beneath the NIL battles, the realignment shifts, the PR blunders, and the bowl-game boycotts, there are still communities built around teams, players, and stories worth telling.

College sports may be in a weird spot — but there’s still something there worth holding onto.