Ross Dellenger: Big Ten-SEC joint group focusing on developing new athlete compensation model

On Friday, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports sent the Internet into a tailspin when he reported the Big Ten and the SEC were joining up to create a joint advisory group to “find solutions & steer college sports into the future.”

Immediately, the future of the NCAA and college sports as we know them came into question. Paul Finebaum provided Dellenger with a platform to explain in greater detail, where he told the SEC Network that this wasn’t exactly a surprise, and it’s stemmed from dissatisfaction with the NCAA’s original proposal in fixing numerous issues in college sports.

“I think the main takeaway is that this isn’t a surprise. I think I was on your show last week or the week before, and we talked about this exact issue. That everything was kind of heading towards the Power Five conferences, or Power Two in this case, kind of coming up with an athlete compensation model on their own,” Dellenger told Finebaum, via SEC Network. “There was some dissatisfaction in the NCAA’s proposal. The project Charlie Baker proposed. Some differences, I think, the Big Ten and the SEC had with the proposal. I think they’re going to come up with their own plans. That’s what I think this joint group is really about. It’s about coming up with a new athlete compensation model, that can both be used, Paul, to settle the House case, the billion dollar anti-trust case against the NCAA. But also to kind of settle the current landscape in college athletics, when it comes to NIL, transfer movement.

“All these legal actions, all these lawsuits are chipping away at the NCAA’s authority and their rules. You might say, ‘The NCAA’s rules are the conference’s rules,’ because they make them, and that’s true, and that’s why there probably needs to be a different model, and I think this board will work to get there.”

That’s a bombshell from Dellenger, and one that we’ve been heading towards over the last couple of seasons. Continuing, Dellenger provided some insight into a meeting between the aforementioned NCAA President Charlie Baker, and a myriad of Power Five commissioners, including Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti.

Ross Dellenger on the ‘honest’ meeting between Charlie Baker, Power Five Commissioners

“So last week the Power Five commissioners, on last Thursday here in DC, met with Charlie Baker. It was a meeting to discuss mainly his proposal. The project he wanted. Charlie Baker had met individually with three of the five Power Five athletic director groups, and now it was his time last week to meet with the commissioners, in a small gathering. I think that the meeting was very open and honest. I think it was candid, in a lot of ways, and I think the commissioners got across their message that they will be working towards something different, and will be working towards a different model,” Dellenger said. “I think Charlie showed an openness to work with them, and understood where they were coming from, from everything I’ve been told. I don’t have the quotes right in front of me, but Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti, and by the way ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, all kind of told me the same thing. It was open, it was honest. Charlie understood where the Power Five leagues were coming from, when they said they needed to go in a little bit of a different direction, and come up with a model that more suits them.

“You’ve got to remember Paul, Charlie Baker’s in a really interesting position, being the NCAA President. You’ve got 97 leagues, over 1000 schools, and all of them are so different. He’s called it before, a 95%, and a 5%, and the 5% are going to need a different model. I think that’s where this joint board with the Big Ten and the SEC are going to work towards.”

Alas, it’s evident we’re headed towards a new model, with the Big Ten and SEC leading the charge. Where we end up will be fascinating, but there’s plenty left to figure out for the decision-makers in power, it seems.