College sports are in a weird place these days.
It's hard to keep up with all the media reports and chatter about the NCAA, ongoing conference realignment, NIL, potential revenue-sharing, a future CEO and so on and so forth.
Much remains in flux. One thing that is clear is that collegiate athletics, as I knew them when I was a student at Syracuse University from 1996 to 2000, is toast. Assuming a federal judge approves the House settlement, and that hadn't transpired as of this past Friday heading into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the Syracuse Orange and its peers nationwide will be able to start directly paying their athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness.
If revenue-sharing does occur beginning with the 2025-26 sports season, there are some things to monitor as it pertains to SU Athletics and other athletics departments across the country.
Keep tabs on these potential themes related to Syracuse Orange Athletics.
One thing to monitor. Could SU Athletics end up cutting staff in the future due to upcoming revenue-sharing? In recent days, a report came out that Oklahoma's athletics department would lay off 15 people "due to the looming realities of starting to share revenue with athletes."
That's unfortunate. But this is where we are. If athletics departments elect to set aside millions of dollars every year to pay their players, that could force these departments to cut overhead, resulting in layoffs. I hope this doesn't transpire at SU Athletics, but I'll be keeping a watchful eye.
To be fair, SU Athletics earlier this year made a new hire, bringing on board veteran sports executive Kevin Morgan as the department's first general manager and chief revenue officer.
A few weeks ago, Kentucky's board of trustees approved the school's athletics department converting to a limited-liability company called Champions Blue LLC.
On May 22, Vanderbilt announced that it had hired long-time hospitality industry executive Markus Schreyer as CEO of that school's newly created Vanderbilt Enterprises, which will focus on, among other things, "enhancing Vanderbilt Athletics resources, support for student-athletes and the fan experience."
Might SU Athletics convert to an LLC in the future? We'll have to wait and see. One other item to keep tabs on. Syracuse Orange athletics director John Wildhack, in early March, said that effective July 1, he will streamline the third-party NIL entities supporting 'Cuse players and not have all three organizations operating into the future.
Those entities are Orange United, SU Football NIL and Athletes Who Care. Even with revenue-sharing potentially on the horizon, it's vital for the Syracuse Orange to have strong third-party NIL to remain competitive in the Atlantic Coast Conference and nationally.