NCAA State of Business Review
Today's Friday Feature discusses the recently released key findings from Bain & Co.'s review of the NCAA's business model.
Background
When Charlie Baker assumed his current position as President of the NCAA, one of his first directives was hiring Bain & Company to conduct a full review of the NCAA’s business model. On Wednesday, nearly five months after the review had been announced, the NCAA released a summary of the consulting firm’s review. The brief review is available in its entirety HERE.
The Report
The report begins with identifying key trends that impact collegiate athletics and, in turn, the NCAA, broken down into four categories: Student-Athletes, Member Institutions, Consumers and Fans, and Ecosystem Partners.
The key findings are as follows:
“Colleges and universities and college sports are at a crossroads, facing key pressures:
The continuing decline of the college age population and the rising costs of college attendance
The options increasingly available for young people to forgo college altogether and get paid to play their sport
Social media, sports betting and other outside influences are complicating the life of student‐athletes
Traditional media partners are experiencing an existential threat to their business”
Although NIL is mentioned elsewhere in the report (twice), it does not appear in the report’s key findings. While there are certainly other issues for the NCAA to consider that may be more pressing, there is perhaps no larger threat to its continued existence than state laws surrounding NIL. A majority of the most recently adopted state laws on NIL have forbid NCAA investigation and/or punishment for state universities. Rumors of more conference realignment—the Big Ten’s conversations surrounding Washington, Oregon, Cal, and Stanford—have brought the creation of super-conferences ever closer. These fairly recent developments have certainly called into question exactly how essential the NCAA is to collegiate athletics, certainly within college football.
Operating Plan
Bain & Company provided the NCAA with the above operating plan for the future, before addressing a number of more specific issues and actions below.
One issue identified by Bain was that: “NIL programming is unaccountable and lacks any kind of consumer protections for student-athletes.” The suggestion: “Put an accountable and transparent framework in place on NIL before the end of the year.”
President Baker set several additional goals for the NCAA:
“Coordinate and deliver safe, fair and inclusive competition directly and via members.
Provide world-class services to student-athletes and members that leverage the NCAA’s collective scale.
Grow the college sports ecosystem.
Deliver sustainable funding for the NCAA mission.”
"It won't happen overnight, but we must make major progress on items that are immediately in front of us in order to set the table for next year," Baker said. "We will get better at working together and moving more quickly than we have in the past. The world is changing quickly, and I look forward to working with our member schools to move faster."
Only time will tell how Bain & Company’s report will impact the NCAA’s operations, but little concrete has been shared as of yet.
Have you checked out OSC’s website?
Head to www.OptimumSportsConsulting.com to find important resources and features relating to all things NIL. These resources include State by State Resources for Admins, Agents and Athletes, including our initial “OSC Summaries” for over a dozen states coming soon.
More to come too, including links to helpful state information- agency laws and information about school policies, as well as seminar/congressional notes, worksheets, and much more!
That summary looks more promising for Bain's future prospects than the client's. Is the full report available yet?