Notre Dame AD would like to see two college athletic associations
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick told CBS Sports he supports the idea of two collegiate athletic associations: one that pays players and one that does not.
Under such a model, the schools in the association that pays players would operate as semi-pro and would contain mainly major-college land-grant schools. The other association would operate with a traditional model, similar to the NCAA's current structure.
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Swarbrick believes there is currently a "cultural divide" in college sports. He said he feels either Congress will need to intervene or two athletic associations will need to be established.
"Forget the economics, the cultural divide in college athletics is getting too big," Swarbrick said. "Any business association requires commonality of interests to hold together.The Oregon and Stanford economic models are similar. Their approach to sports couldn't be more different."
"... It's a decision the Ivy League made a long time ago," he said. "Other schools will say, 'Hey, we're comfortable with sort of semi-pro model.' That's a perfectly valid choice. But for some of us that's not a choice we're prepared to make and we won't."
- Molly Geary
