Todd’s Take: College Sports Changes Are Too Much, Too Soon For Many Indiana Fans

In the last half-decade, the college athletics landscape has undergone a radical makeover. Many of the consumers of college sports are alienated by the changes.

An Indiana fan shows their disappointment during the Indiana versus Illinois women's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Sometimes you write a column and you’re unsure how people are going to react.

On Sunday, I wrote a column about a hypothetical scenario in which established college athletic brands, like Indiana, could separate from the universities they’ve always been connected to.

The idea is that “Indiana Hoosiers” and other power conference athletic programs are so recognizable, they could stand on their own without being tied to the student-athlete model.

I was inspired to write it when Kentucky announced it was turning its athletic program into a limited liability company. I’ve also heard the idea that college athletic brands one day could become their own thing repeated several times by college athletics observers.

Separating “Indiana Hoosiers” from “Indiana University” is a pretty radical concept. Sometimes, when you write about a radical concept, readers who haven’t considered the idea can turn on the messenger, not the message.

So I cringed a bit when the story was posted on our social media outlets, but I shouldn’t have.

Reaction to the column was interesting. The message from many was that they are well beyond “enough is enough” territory and well into “I’m out” resignation as the changes in college athletics continue to buffet the very definition of how we perceive college sports to begin with.

I’m not going to identify anyone by name, but here’s a sampling of some of the comments we got.

“They’re slowly losing me as it is.”

“With no student-athletes and no school loyalty I don’t even watch.”

“I would lose all interest.”

“Barely holding on now, so NO!!!!!”

“We all know it’s the mighty dollar that drives the NCAA, conferences and universities. But this road Kentucky has taken could be the death of college athletics.”

“Sadly, if this came about, the team and the Big 10 would just be another semi-pro group with no real connection to the college other than the name.”

“I’ll stop watching and buying tickets.”

I wouldn’t want to say that these kinds of comments represented 100% of the sentiment. Some fans said they’d support a hypothetical “Indiana Hoosiers” separate from the university.

But I wasn’t cherry-picking those comments. I would say it was the majority sentiment in a landslide. I’d say at least 75% of the comments we got reacted negatively to the premise.

The empty seats in the upper seating during the Indiana versus Maryland men's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

That’s to be expected to a certain extent because people fear change. But the bigger message that comes out of it for me is that the sheer amount of change over recent years has reached critical mass with the fans the whole enterprise depends on.

For all of the how-the-sausage-is-made focus on the House settlement, NIL payments, transfer portal rules and marrying all of the above to the student-athlete experience, it’s easy to forget sometimes that the financial underpinning of college athletics depends on consistent fan interest. At least it does in revenue sports like football and basketball that financially support the rest of college athletics programs.

Without that fan interest? Those lucrative TV contracts don’t exist. Those donors that schools tap would fade away. Those big money contracts for coaches – and now players – would be brought back down to Earth. Some might say “good”, but the ramifications from such a collapse wouldn’t be good for anyone. The athletes themselves in particular.

Granted, much of the change that has buffeted college athletics has been court-enforced and was probably long overdue. Colleges and conferences are left to deal with the aftermath.

Still, it behooves all stake-holders in college athletics – and I’m talking about institutions, conferences and the participants – to find some common ground on how to stabilize the landscape with agreed upon rules.

I’m not brimming with confidence that will happen. In every corner of the college athletics world, you find fiefdoms of self-interest. No one wants to give for the greater good when they’re still trying to angle their way into the most advantageous position the new world will create.

Some have suggested that collective bargaining for college athletics would solve many of these problems. In theory it would, but in practice it would be a mess. Collective bargaining works in pro sports because a labor union negotiates with one body, the league in charge.

How would collective bargaining be standardized across 364 Division I institutions in 49 of 50 states? The NCAA is not like a pro sports league, it's basically just an organization that creates rules and is a sanctioning body for tournaments. It has nothing to do with day-to-day operations like the NFL or NBA does. Many of those smaller schools would opt out, but even if you just take the 100 top athletic programs, the path to collective bargaining will be rough and fraught with self-interest all along the way.

Meanwhile, the paying customers get more alienated by it all. Change is part of life and college athletics are not immune, but there is such a thing as too much, too soon.

Many fans are already there. That’s a chilling prospect for college stakeholders who think their golden goose can be squeezed forever without killing it.

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