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There’s a great belief among members of the college football world – be it players, coaches, administrators, or media members – that the only thing that could save the future of the sport is a collective bargaining agreement.
While such an agreement has plenty of hurdles, especially considering that college football players in general cover a massive class of individuals, there is reason to believe that it could happen. And it sounds as if it could happen sooner rather than later.
According to a new report from Pete Nakos of On3 Sports, we may have taken a very big step toward a future CBA thanks to a recent meeting of the minds.
College Football GMs Agree With The Need For A Collective Bargaining Agreement
According to the report, general managers representing 23 Power Four programs met with Jim Cavale and Brandon Copeland of Athletes.Org, a players’ association created in recent years in hopes of moving toward a CBA.
After a five-hour meeting, Nakos reports that the 23 GMs unanimously agreed that a collective bargaining model was the best way forward for college football. The group of GMs also agreed that the number of transfer portal windows should be reduced, and that incentive-based player contracts were ideal for all parties. Additionally, the general managers proposed a process to certify and register formal player agents.
“Last night, meeting with GMs was another example of the power of getting everyone in a room,” Cavale told On3. “All the different perspectives and actually talking about the solution for the future. Unfortunately, for a lot of these GMs, they can’t talk about their perspective and their ideas for solutions in their own building because this is such a taboo topic — collective bargaining and solving for the future of college athletics. Some of them do get to do that, but not all of them, so this was a chance for them to participate.”
Similarly, Athletes.org held a players’ only meeting in Atlanta over the winter prior to the national championship game, Among the topics discussed at the meeting was creating a collective bargaining process.
It now appears that both sides of the aisle agree on what needs to happen. But the matter of actually getting to that point could be far, far more difficult.