Rece Davis on possible CBA in college football: 'It's going to have to happen'

A collective-bargaining agreement is a conversation that’s beginning to make its way around college athletics as the next change to the landscape. It’s also one that could be right around the corner considering how inevitable that Rece Davis sees it as.

Davis gave his take and the timeline on a potential CBA for college football during an appearance on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ this week. He thinks there’s plenty for many to still sort out considering the proceedings for House v. NCAA but sometime over the next year or more would be his guess for when we could have this framework.

“It’s going to have to happen before they end up having to pay damages in that House case in which they’re coming against all of the NCAA for past wages and past money in NIL that was held back,” Davis explained. “They’ll need to reach the agreement before that comes and that is what the judge has asked them to do.”

“I think that within the next year or so, or at least between or before the time that this case would come before the judge for a ruling? I think the settlement would be helpful and kind of give us some parameters,” said Davis.

Davis also sees it coming down the line based on how certain positions of powers are already thinking about it. He noted how certain athletic leaders across the country have begun to calculate the details of this in order to determine how much of a cut that the players could be getting from a revenue share.

“I think that there are a lot of athletics directors – I’ve talked to some just in the last couple of days – who are really concerned about the future and want to get this settled because they want to figure out how to budget things and how they’re going to have to allocate money,” Davis explained. “There’s a lot of money. It’ll be up to them to figure out how to do it but how much will they have to allocate?”

Again, this concept coming to college sports could be arriving sometime soon.

It was just earlier this week that the entire football team at UAB signed on with Athletes.org, which is a story that Davis referenced as well. The Blazers joined Jim Cavale’s non-profit in order to best position themselves for the future, including ones that may feature revenue-sharing, collective-bargaining agreements, or a players association.

College sports continues to evolve in new ways at every turn. That now could very well include collective bargaining for a cut of the cash from the media rights for athletics.

“There’s a lot going on,” said Davis.