There should be some sort of "transparent" calculation here that everyone can feel good about, that is funneled through the universities instead of the players.
X = revenue generated from boosters
Y = revenue generated from broadcast and ticket sales
Z = revenue generated from sponsorships
X+Y+Z divided by the number of teams in a financial tier = salary cap for team in that tier
Run this calculation for every school in D1, and you're gonna see that their are financial tiers.
The Michigans, the Alabamas, the Texas's---they're going to have significantly more cash on hand than, say, Boise State.
The NCAA can govern this in the sense that they can determine the Tiers: maybe Tier 1 is 10 teams. Everyone in that tier can pay quarterbacks the same amount, wideouts the same amount, running backs the same amount, etc.
Everyone's basically on a one year deal, and can transfer season to season to either move up a tier in payment, or move laterally to an open starting position. This would retain the dynamic of power schools/power conferences, and make the process more transparent. This also allows money to be funneled through the universities, which a) standardizes it, and b) makes it (theoretically) more equitable for the student bodies, because the unis can hold on to "administrative fees."
the market needs to be set and set firm, by position though--agents have to be taken out of this shyt. the nfl has a closed ecosystem, so when athletes get there contracts are for the most part pre-determined. No hotshot agent is going to overturn the apple cart. The NCAA needs to do the same thing, and they could do it quite easily by each individual school having the NCAA act as a governing body, and the universities basically collectively bargaining only with players who agree to play by these rules. For instance, if a once in a generation qb comes along that holds out and says im only playing if i make 35 million dollars a year, the schools would have to stand in union-like solidarity with one another that no one would sign that player.
