After an SEC meetings in which Congressional bills, self-governance, playoff expansion and tampering enforcement were all debated, there's an unasked question: Is this all for nothing?
The “is this all for nothing” question lands because most of these debates are about who controls the money, not about whether anyone can actually account for it. Coming from an operator background, what strikes me watching the SEC meetings is that they’re negotiating governance on top of financial and athlete data that isn’t standardized across schools. You can’t enforce a cap, prove compliance, or even agree on what a “fair” share is when every department measures differently. The rules will keep shifting until the underlying ledger is shared.
The “is this all for nothing” question lands because most of these debates are about who controls the money, not about whether anyone can actually account for it. Coming from an operator background, what strikes me watching the SEC meetings is that they’re negotiating governance on top of financial and athlete data that isn’t standardized across schools. You can’t enforce a cap, prove compliance, or even agree on what a “fair” share is when every department measures differently. The rules will keep shifting until the underlying ledger is shared.