Michigan State, The XFL, and the Future of College Football

This was not supposed to happen again.  Penn State was an isolated incident involving a deified coach who had lost touch with reality.  Baylor was about an ambitious coach who built a winner from virtually nothing and wanted to keep a pristine front for his Christian donors.  These were major football programs and universities being implicated in the worst kinds of crimes and cover ups, but the overarching narrative was that these were unique situations perpetrated by individuals who were blinded by their own pride and avarice.  Then Michigan State happened and the story changed.  Now the narrative has turned from rogue opportunists trying to protect their own image to "this story probably happens to all major FBS programs, but you just don't hear about it".  Everyone has heard a variation of that comment related to what has been reported about the Michigan State Football program, and it is a depressing state of affairs.  In six years the response has gone from visceral outrage towards sexual assaults to latent acceptance that this is probably not an uncommon occurrence for college football programs.  Football players are intertwined with all three of these scandals, and with Vince McMahon's announcement that he is going to revive the XFL the NCAA needs to take a long hard look at the state of affairs in college football.  Michigan State may change the perception of college football, and the beneficiary could be a person who is as unscrupulous as the individuals being implicated in these scandals.  To understand this line of reasoning, the first thing that must be analyzed is the college experience as it pertains to college football.

(WARNING: This article is about how the Michigan State Football Scandal could lead to the marginalization of the NCAA and college football.  There is very little in the way of victims rights or advocating for justice for the Michigan State victims contained withing this article.  What happened at Michigan State is a travesty, and the victims deserve all the justice that the American Legal System can afford them, but there are tons of articles that state that.  I would like to pursue a different avenue of thought; one that focuses on the institutions that continue to allow this to happen and what could become of them if someone is willing to challenge them on a business level.  Please stop reading if you will be incensed by analysis that will put the Michigan State Scandal in the context of the business model of college football.  Thank you.)

Now, think about your first couple days of college.  Six months before, your line to get out of the house on a Friday/Saturday Night was "Mom, I'm going over to [best friend's house] to hang out and maybe watch a movie", or whatever BS line you handed your parents to go out and party.  But in college you didn't need a line.  For the first time in your life you had the freedom to do whatever you wanted without any direct parental oversight.  Can you remember what that felt like?  It was almost like a drug.  You had power for the first time and you were going to exercise it to the full extent.  Now take that state of euphoria and add it to the sense of entitlement of being on a stage that gives you national notoriety.  Everyone can recognize a football player on a major college campus, and they have that intrinsic sense of college independence multiplied by the entitlement that comes from playing a major sport on national television.  Those players are the money makers and they know it. Without them the university does not have as high of a prestige, and the boosters do not give as much money to the university.  They know the university will do anything to keep them happy and their image as spotless as can be so the money keeps rolling in, but they never see any of the money that is being made off of their talent.  Can you imagine what that feels like, or what that does to the psyche of an 18 year old kid?  I can imagine that it makes them feel more invincible, untouchable, and apathetic than the normal college student which may manifest itself in more nefarious ways i.e. sexual assaults.  This is the perceived state of college athletics, and if you think that these allegations of sexual assault would curtail this vicious cycle you would be wrong.

The players make college football profitable.  Yes, the ad revenue is what keeps them on TV, but it is the quality of programming the TV stations pay for that is driven by the quality of players that play in the league.  The problem is that the players get nothing tangible for their services from the NCAA.  The NCAA is comprised of 129 different FBS schools divided up into 26 conferences, of which 10 are relevant, and 5 are the ones that matter.  The schools are left to their own devices to generate revenue and rein in adolescent physical specimens that are not getting any piece of the multi-billion dollar enterprise they are building.  The Michigan State Scandal indicates that those schools are doing a poor job of reining these kids in, and yet sexual assault scandals have seemed to not have any impact on the money making aspect of this venture.  The Penn State Scandal broke in 2011 and yet,  according to the US Department of Education, the Penn State Football Program's revenue ($81.1 million) and expenses ($39.1 million) were at an all time high in 2016.  The main part of the Baylor scandal broke in 2015-2016 and yet, according to the US Department of Education, the football program recorded it's highest yearly revenue ($43.2 million) and expenses ($33.3 million) by the end of the 2016 season.  This shows that sexual assault scandals have had very little impact on either school's bottom line, but with the Michigan State Scandal bringing forth the idea that "these types of stories probably happen to all FBS programs", it may open up the NCAA's business model to something more dangerous to them than bad press.  Economic competition.

The NCAA and it's schools have been able to run their operations with impunity as it pertains to economic competition because there has never been a legitimate contender with a viable selling point willing to take on that challenge.  Enter Vince McMahon's resurrection of the XFL amidst the Michigan State Football scandal.  McMahon has never been one to show scruples in his business practices, and he has a real opportunity to exploit the MSU Football scandal in order to make this new iteration of the XFL more viable.  It has been proposed that new XFL teams should be able to draft freshman and sophomores out of college in order to set itself apart from the NFL.  I propose going a step further and allowing XFL teams to sign players out of high school, and have McMahon cut WWE-like promos in order to frame it against the backdrop of failing college institutions.  He could go down the list of problems with the college business model listed above as his selling points.  The players are exploited and put into situations that give them a sense of entitlement.  This entitlement leads to deviant group think behavior that is inherent to the college football player experience because they are getting rewarded for their services through the celebrity they attain on campus.  This celebrity gives them a sense of they can do whatever they want because they have no material compensation to lose, and the school will protect them because the school does not want to lose the millions of dollars in revenue they are making off of the players' services.  All the while, the NCAA gets to sit back and save face by saying it will investigate this and that, while the players are vilified for being a product of the money making system that now has forsaken them.  Now, think of the alternative that the XFL could offer a player coming out of high school or their first year of college.

McMahon and the XFL could offer them a salary guilt free.  No paying under the table in order to keep up the facade of amateurism.  It is all legal, but it could also be conditional.  McMahon could have caveats about the player not having any sexual assault allegations on his record in order to sign, and he could have a zero tolerance policy for that kind of behavior once they do sign.  The larger the salary is; the more incentive the player has to fall in line, but there would be a tangible consequence to their behavior that is currently absent in college football.  In one fell swoop, McMahon could rally the support of the people who are outraged by the sexual assault scandals on college campuses to his cause, and pique the interest of those high school seniors and college freshman who are looking to get paid.  The XFL's selling point here could be, "Do you want your son going to a place where he will be thrust into a situation that will put him in an entitled elite section of the population for no compensation, OR do you want him to learn what it is like to make an honest living to help his family and learn how to operate within a setting of more mature individuals?".  That could be hard to turn down, especially if there is a six figure contract behind it, and it could spell the beginning of the end for the outright hegemony the NCAA has over high school football's talent pool.

If the XFL chooses to go down this path it seems ironic that the people on the side of justice for sexual assault victims would need to hitch their wagon to someone like Vince McMahon, but it is the only way.  The scandals alone have done nothing towards harming the money making machines at Penn State and Baylor, and more than likely the same will happen at Michigan State.  But that is because there has never been a challenge to the schools' business model of acquiring the best high school talent to their institutions to force them to make any real change other than removing the parties involved.  If the XFL decides to recruit younger players they will have takers, and it will be especially potent if McMahon can frame it in the sense of preventing sexual assault through contractual obligations.  The more the XFL can exploit the shortcomings of their competitors that have disillusioned parts of the fan base, the more interest they can draw from the fans, from prospective players, and from sponsors.  The Michigan State Football Scandal has perpetuated a huge shortcoming for sending a high school football player to any college campus.  If the XFL can leverage that into stealing those players away from an NCAA that needs them to keep their money making machine going, it may just lead to to the reform within college football that people are looking for, and they would have Vince McMahon to thank for it.