{"id":299447,"date":"2025-11-18T16:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/299447\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:47:11","slug":"how-to-save-my-beloved-college-football-from-being-destroyed-gordon-whitener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/299447\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Save My Beloved College Football From Being Destroyed | Gordon Whitener"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love college football. But right now, college sports are in a state of chaos. If we don\u2019t act, soon and decisively, the entire system could collapse under its own weight.<\/p>\n

From the Sidelines to the Boardroom\u00a0<\/p>\n

My story begins in Dalton, Georgia, a small town where football wasn\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t good enough to play Division I football, but I did earn a small baseball scholarship at the University of Tennessee. When that didn\u2019t work out, I crossed the street and joined Coach Johnny Majors\u2019 football staff. That decision changed my life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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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)<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve run two companies in the collegiate multimedia-rights business, and through my own firm, I\u2019ve invested across nearly every part of the ecosystem, from media rights and sponsorships, to NIL and donor programs. I\u2019ve 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Financial House Is Burning\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The business has become reactive, fragmented, and obsessed with short-term deals instead of long-term stability. Everyone\u2019s chasing survival. No one\u2019s building sustainability. Meanwhile, the student-athletes, the reason this whole enterprise exists, are left to navigate the wreckage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NCAA has lost both moral and practical authority. This isn\u2019t evolution. It\u2019s entropy, progressing quickly to true chaos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Needed: Unity, Leadership, and a Players\u2019 Voice<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for college football to grow up and govern itself like the professional ecosystem it\u2019s 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\u2019s time the system reflected that truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Caitlin Clark during her career at the University of Iowa. (Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s programs, are at risk of extinction. This is more than a campus problem – it\u2019s a national one. Without structural funding reform and public-private collaboration, America\u2019s athlete development pipeline and Olympic competitiveness will suffer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Urgency of Now\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Paul Finebaum asked me last fall what happens if we don\u2019t fix this, I told him, “The bottom half of every conference runs out of money.” That\u2019s not hyperbole – it\u2019s 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\u2019s arguing over who owns the hose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A (Play) Call to Action\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s broken, and to lead with integrity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Did<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

The NCAA, Conference Commissioners, University presidents, and major boosters must stop tinkering with a shattered model.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They must build a new one:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u25cf A transparent revenue-sharing system tied to media rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u25cf Independent oversight for athlete welfare and education.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u25cf Joint-venture frameworks that align public funding, private capital, and brand investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s 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\u2019t 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.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s power corridor, the week following the CFP National Championship, before spring games and ahead of the next fiscal cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

History will remember who stepped up and who stood still. College football has always been about courage under pressure. Now it\u2019s your fourth-and-goal moment. If we love this game, truly LOVE it, then it\u2019s time to call the play that saves it. Because if we don\u2019t, there won\u2019t be anything left to love, and then, what will we all do with our Saturdays?<\/p>\n

Gordon Whitener is the Founder & CEO of The Whitener Company and a sports & media investor.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I love college football. But right now, college sports are in a state of chaos. If we don\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-299447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}