I love college football. But right now, college sports are in a state of chaos. If we don’t act, soon and decisively, the entire system could collapse under its own weight.
From the Sidelines to the Boardroom
My story begins in Dalton, Georgia, a small town where football wasn’t just a sport, it was the social fabric. By the time I was eight, I knew I wanted to coach. My high school had a couple of All-Americans, which meant every major college coach came through our doors. Meeting them fueled an obsession.
I wasn’t good enough to play Division I football, but I did earn a small baseball scholarship at the University of Tennessee. When that didn’t work out, I crossed the street and joined Coach Johnny Majors’ football staff. That decision changed my life.
Johnny Majors, Head Coach for the University of Tennessee Volunteers stands with his team during the NCAA Southeastern Conference college football game against the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish on November 10, 1990 at the Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Allsport/Getty Images)
Working under Coach Majors, I learned from some of the best, surrounded by legendary assistants and players like Reggie White. After graduation, I became a graduate assistant for Pat Jones at Oklahoma State, helping Houston Nutt coach receivers. At 22, I was fortunate to be named recruiting coordinator and helped sign Mike Gundy and a quiet running back named Barry Sanders, who I still believe is the greatest player ever to touch a football. I left coaching for business in 1988, but never left the game.
I’ve run two companies in the collegiate multimedia-rights business, and through my own firm, I’ve invested across nearly every part of the ecosystem, from media rights and sponsorships, to NIL and donor programs. I’ve seen college football from every angle – coach, recruiter, rightsholder, donor, and investor. That vantage point gives me both a deep love for the sport and a clear, unfiltered view of its current crisis.
The Financial House Is Burning
Let’s stop sugarcoating it, the college athletics economic model is broken. Most athletic departments are drowning in red ink. The “arms race” for athletes, facilities, and staff has created budgets that even blue-blood programs struggle to sustain. The middle and lower tiers of every conference are already on life support. Even rights-holders like ESPN, the very networks that built this multi-billion dollar ecosystem, are feeling the strain.
The business has become reactive, fragmented, and obsessed with short-term deals instead of long-term stability. Everyone’s chasing survival. No one’s building sustainability. Meanwhile, the student-athletes, the reason this whole enterprise exists, are left to navigate the wreckage.
NIL opened long-overdue opportunities for players to earn, but without regulation or guardrails, it has devolved into chaos. Collectives operate like unchecked booster clubs. Lawsuits pile up.
The NCAA has lost both moral and practical authority. This isn’t evolution. It’s entropy, progressing quickly to true chaos.
What’s Needed: Unity, Leadership, and a Players’ Voice
It’s time for college football to grow up and govern itself like the professional ecosystem it’s become. First, we need a College Football Players Association, giving athletes a seat at the table and establishing collective rights and responsibilities. When players sign scholarships, they should automatically become a member. They are the labor and the product. It’s time the system reflected that truth.
Second, we need a real governing entity for college football, a joint body representing conferences, schools, networks, and players. The current patchwork of conference silos is untenable. Realignment has become roulette. College football needs a single strategic authority capable of aligning media, brands, and athletes around a shared, sustainable vision.
Caitlin Clark during her career at the University of Iowa. (Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports)
Third, we must protect all college sports. Football used to underwrite the entire athletic ecosystem. Now, as its economy fragments, non-revenue sports, such as Olympic, developmental, and women’s programs, are at risk of extinction. This is more than a campus problem – it’s a national one. Without structural funding reform and public-private collaboration, America’s athlete development pipeline and Olympic competitiveness will suffer.
Finally, we must put College back in college sports. Most players will never go pro. NIL fame and income fades, but education endures. We owe every athlete a real degree, real support, and a real path beyond the game.
The Urgency of Now
When Paul Finebaum asked me last fall what happens if we don’t fix this, I told him, “The bottom half of every conference runs out of money.” That’s not hyperbole – it’s happening: Athletic departments are borrowing to survive; rights-holders are underpaying for growing, loyal audiences; fans are being priced out and confused by shifting schedules; brands are hesitant because the model lacks transparency and governance. The house is on fire, and everyone’s arguing over who owns the hose.
But the same passion and innovation that made college football great can save it. If conferences, schools, media, donors, sponsors, and players finally sit at the same table, without politics or ego, this sport can reinvent itself once again.
A (Play) Call to Action
Early in my business career, a wise old chairman told our management team, “Your patient needs open heart surgery, and you guys are busy clipping his toenails.” College football is in critical condition. It needs to be rebuilt and we have all of the knowledge and tools to fix it. Reform starts with courage – the courage to face the math, to admit what’s broken, and to lead with integrity.
Members of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team huddle before the College Football Playoff National Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Jan. 20, 2025 in Atlanta. Photo: James Lang-Imagn Images
The NCAA, Conference Commissioners, University presidents, and major boosters must stop tinkering with a shattered model.
They must build a new one:
● A transparent revenue-sharing system tied to media rights.
● Independent oversight for athlete welfare and education.
● Joint-venture frameworks that align public funding, private capital, and brand investment.
That’s how we secure the future, not by nostalgia, but by design. Commissioners, boosters, and university presidents, What are we waiting for? You have the power to fix this, but not the luxury of time. The market is already rewriting your playbook. If you don’t create a unified, player-inclusive, financially sustainable model, someone else will. Do we really want Congress and the courts to define our future? (They have their own issues to address.)
College football needs its “Summit Moment”, a gathering where every vested stakeholder confronts the truth and commits to a path forward. I propose to host this meeting in Dallas, Texas, the heart of college football’s power corridor, the week following the CFP National Championship, before spring games and ahead of the next fiscal cycle.
History will remember who stepped up and who stood still. College football has always been about courage under pressure. Now it’s your fourth-and-goal moment. If we love this game, truly LOVE it, then it’s time to call the play that saves it. Because if we don’t, there won’t be anything left to love, and then, what will we all do with our Saturdays?
Gordon Whitener is the Founder & CEO of The Whitener Company and a sports & media investor.