There's a lot I agree with here. The assumption has always

been how to squeeze everything past Title IX. I am a proponent of women sports. But there's a massive void when it comes to football which is an outlier. Especially after the lawsuits start percolating over the lack of NIL money directed at female athletes, colleges will start to look into the advantages of putting football into a separate catgeory, and based on the premise that players are not students - or at least a portion of them.

The NCAA is doomed. It's a matter of when not if. The fact that it has lasted this long is actually a testament to how much we love college football. And the conference route is unsustainable. Colleges are self-interested. I don't blame them. It's the disingenuousness that they have the students in mind that bothers me.

I think there's a lot to unpack but I'm not sure what you described isn't necessarily bad for Notre Dame. If there isn't already, there will be a fork in the road and I don't think the one where Notre Dame has 85 employee-football players is a good one. Even now, we've seen how roster management impacts the connection points we have with the team. Sam Hartman seems like a great guy but he'll be 24 years old next year and this will be his 6th year playing college football.