Credit: Courtesy of Julia Rubin
College sports, especially football, seem to change by the minute.
Over the years, many experts have attempted to take a deep dive into the ever-changing landscape of collegiate athletics. One of those people is longtime sports journalist Armen Keteyian, who also co-authored “The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos” in August 2024.
Friday from 5-7 p.m., Ohio State’s Sports and Society Initiative will host Keteyian for a discussion surrounding Name, Image and Likeness developments, the expanded playoffs, the transfer portal, the conference realignment and the House vs. NCAA case. Titled “‘The Price’ of College Football,” the event will take place at the Ross Community Studio, located at 1800 N. Pearl St.
In addition, the interactive session will feature three keynote speakers: Mark Pantoni, general manager of Ohio State football; Matt Brown, founder of Extra Points, which covers the business aspect of college sports; and Andy Schwarz, an economist specializing in antitrust laws.
Nicole Kraft, director of SSI and associate professor of practice in Ohio State’s School of Communication, said the idea to host this event stemmed from reading Keteyian’s book.
“Upon reading that, I started to really see some intricacies and nuances that I think a lot of people are missing,” Kraft said Monday on the “All Sides with Amy Juravich” podcast. “I thought it would be a compelling time for us all to come together after the first [college football] playoff, and after the expansion and just all the changes that have taken place to really see what happened. Where did we come from? Where did we go? And where are we going?”
Though the book doesn’t specifically focus on Ohio State, it does discuss NIL’s effect on several Buckeye football players, including safety Caleb Downs, former running back Quinshon Judkins and quarterback Julian Sayin.
“[The book is] looking at how they made their decisions to initially select the universities that they went to, and how money changed the decision that they made and how they ended up coming to Ohio State, in part because of the resources that we could offer them,” Kraft said on the podcast.
Though NIL has been the most debated topic regarding the evolution of collegiate athletics, Keteyian also highlighted the chaotic nature of the transfer portal.
With Ohio State football beginning spring practice just days ago, Keteyian said if a player realizes he’s not going to play or get significant playing time, he can decide to jump into the spring transfer portal before the season begins.
“You can invest all this time and effort in developing really high-quality athletes, and then all of a sudden, if they don’t get what they think is deserved, they’re in the portal and the coaches then now have to scramble to figure out a way to fill that void,” Keteyian said on Juravich’s podcast.
In addition, the conference realignment has significantly impacted the collegiate athletics landscape in only its first year. Keteyian said he feels the destruction of the Pac-12 conference and expansions of the Big Ten and SEC is due to greed and self-interest.
“Those are two very powerful forces,” Keteyian said on the podcast. “With all due respect to [Big Ten commissioner] Tony Petitti, who I worked with and he was one of my bosses at CBS, and certainly Greg Sankey at the SEC, their focus is very narrow right now; it’s on ‘What is the best thing for my conference?’ It’s not what’s best for the Power Five conferences, or even the Big 12 of the ACC. And I think you’re going to see some serious restructuring of college sports in the next few years.”
In the future, NIL is going to be even more pivotal for universities across the country when it comes to collegiate athletics, especially football. Keteyian said though other schools may suffer from this, Ohio State is likely going to reap the benefits.
“Money is going to be even more important as we move forward, and that’s where Ohio State is in the driver’s seat right now,” Keteyian said. “With their $20 million collective, their absolute focus [is] on getting the best athletes, and if they get them in the portal, so be it.”
Friday’s SSI discussion is free and open to the public. Attendees can register at sportsandsociety.osu.edu.
