College Football

Hypothetical NCAA Rule And Law Changes

by
Brian Ramos
March 8, 2026

After a long ongoing battle between the NCAA, the Supreme Court, and many others, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) became legalized on June 21, 2021. At the time it became legalized, Dr. Mark Emmert was the President of the NCAA. Image – The Seattle Times

Martin Emmert vs. Charlie Baker NCAA Impact

Emmert was President in the first three years of NIL. In those three years, Emmert made some significant decisions that led and helped NIL exist and blossom into what it is today. Some of those changes include, an interim NIL policy allowing student-athletes to earn NIL deals and money regardless of if the state the school was in had their own laws, and pushed for federal legislation since state-by-state laws created an unfair competitive advantage.

On March 1, 2023, Charlie Baker took over for Emmert as the sixth President of the NCAA. In addition to Emmert, Baker also made his strong impact to NIL and this new era of college sports, arguably, a greater one than his predecessor.

Image – WHYY

Some of Baker’s contributions to NIL are his proposal of direct school compensation which he proposed in December of 2023, allowing Division I schools to directly dish out NIL deals moving away from third party collectives. In addition, he advocated for an enhanced educational trust fund, where some of the more financially wealthy schools should invest $30,000 for an educational trust fund for half of their student-athletes.

He wanted to eliminate third-party NIL agreements to ensure an even playing field for all schools which later was developed into revenue sharing. However, under Baker, not just NIL changed the landscape of NCAA sports. In addition to NIL, the transfer portal rose rapidly under Baker. In the 2023-24 recruiting cycle, over 3,700 FBS players entered the transfer portal which was more than double from 2018-19. Just a year later in the 2024-25 season, more than 97% of players at the Power Four level found a new team.

Many people were unhappy with both Emmert and Baker. If given the opportunity, many would want to change rules about NIL and the transfer portal.

Peter Boehme

Peter Boehme, a former four-year starting punter at Southern Mississippi, was All-Conference his freshman year and a captain his senior year. Now fast-forward, as he returned to his alma mater and is now the Executive Director of the To The Top Collective.

“I would probably try to make it where the transfer portal was not abused and I think they’ve already done that, where it’s once a year. If president of the NCAA, I think one thing they can do is adjust the calendars to fit each sport more uniquely. So I think one thing that I’ve probably been frustrated with the most is that the school calendar really doesn’t have anything to do with the sport that the kids are playing. “

“I think that if you could match up that better to where the school, I mean, let’s be honest, the school can be open all year. It doesn’t need a summer break if all these kids are being schooled in an institution that has the professors available, it’s like, hey, if football is going to report at the 1st of June and everybody else from reports the middle of June for a summer session, like or if football is going to be there or basketball is going to be there in July when school doesn’t start officially until August, then can we go ahead and get them some classes while they’re there, because they’re there as a requirement to the team.”

Boehme’s Change To Fix The Academic Calendar

“And if education’s a part of that, let’s go ahead and start some classes for them so that by the their playoff time or by their tournament time, because you think about a basketball player, they play a little bit in the fall, they go all winter where they’re playing their sports and no school is being really done because they’re on winter break and then they’ve got their tournament in July. So it’s like they miss a whole week of school during March Madness.”

“Or how can that be effective when you you were there all July with no school hardly and you could have been taking your spring semester? You know, just, I think there’s value in the looking at the calendar and making it make sense because, again, like we saw it last year with the portal, teams are in the playoffs and kids are trying to make decisions. They got to get enrolled for their January school. It’s like,, well, there should be another bucket for this, because obviously this school is involved with this calendar that exists athletically, why can’t the two coexist?”

I mean, like baseball. They get there the first of the year in January. The season doesn’t start until 1st of November in middle of February, school doesn’t start till the end of January, and then they play all of June if they’re in a regional and, you know, there’s no school then either.”

The Academic Calendar Should Vary For Athletes

Boehme’s proposal is very interesting and definitely something the NCAA should consider and look into. Take basketball players for example, their season starts in November which is during the first semester and goes all the way into March, and maybe April which is both semesters as well as the winter. It is extremely difficult for most collegiate athletes, but especially basketball players to handle the schoolwork with their current school’s calendar.

Also, if they enter the transfer portal, you need to pick a school where you make sure all, if not most of your credits will transfer over, and be able to join that school instantly in order to be registered for classes as well as with the team.

David Fuess

David Fuess is the Executive Director and quote on quote, face of the NIL program for Tulsa University.

“First thing I would do is install some sort of a salary cap by conference. I think it would be different at the American than the conference USA, and the Big 12. They would have slightly different caps. And those caps, I think, would need to be decided based on the bottom and the top in terms of probably size of the university and just general ability to raise money, perhaps attendance because they can take a portion of that from revenue share.”

Stricter Transfer Portal + Sympathy For Coaches

“The second thing is I would tighten down the transfer portal. I think there has to be some stronger penalties for transferring. Any transferring’s okay. I don’t see anything wrong with transferring. But to have no real disadvantage or no drawbacks towards transferring, I think, is a little short-sighted, and it creates a lot of problems.”

“You know, this past four years of being NIL, I tell you, I’ve never felt sorry for a coach before, because they’ve always been well paid for what they do, to play a game for a job, which is, I’m sure their dream. But, you know, a coach today, and this goes all the way to the top 25, they find themselves having to re-recruit the kids over and over and that is not something, in my opinion, that’s healthy. I think it puts the kids in a position at 18 to 22 that they’re just not equipped in general, and they’re dealing with adults as coaches and boosters who are paying them money and add a little too much power. and it’s a littles just a little too far weighted towards the player.”

Each point and change Fuess brought up are great points. A salary cap by conference allows the Power-Four conferences to still be more dominant than the FCS and/or mid-major schools, but creates a fair environment within each conference. His second point about the transfer portal is definitely valid and should be some sort of penalty if you transfer more than once. The third point Fuess mentions definitely needs to be brought up more as it is unfair to coaches especially with how often it happens with the time and money spent on recruiting athletes that are already committed and will still decommit.

Mike Holmes

Mike Holmes, is a former Associate Athletic Director at Georgia State University.

“I would love to make changes. The problem is now as a society, every time somebody doesn’t get what they want, they turn around and sue. I think basically the NCAA has gotten to the point that they can’t afford any more lawsuits, and the power has flipped to the student athlete side. I don’t think it matters who the president of the NCAA is, there’s no magic wand that can kind of fix all of it unless we get to a point where it’s hey, you know what? We’re going to do this for the best of everybody and we need everybody to agree with it.”

There is some validity to Holmes’ statement about people wanting to sue if they do not get their way. However, the NCAA as a business and organization needs to step up and not get controlled by colleges and universities as well as student athletes. Once the NCAA fully loses that power, the floodgates are opened to the point where it could get much worse.

Stay tuned for the next article of this series about the new era of college football!

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Brian Ramos is a contributor on Back Sports Page. Along with receiving his B.A. in Sports Communications, he has over six years of experience in the sports industry and has interviewed a variety of people in the sports industry, such as Daniel Jones, Tommy DeVito, Mac McClung, Julius Randle, Bobby Portis, Don La Greca, Adam Schefter, James and Trevor van Riemsdyk, and others. In addition to writing, Ramos has called women’s lacrosse and baseball on ESPN+. Ramos has a podcast on YouTube called Cut The Nets, along with his co-host Jeremy Gretzer. You can find Brian on Instagram at @Brian.ramos0219 and Twitter at @brianramos0219.

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