SBJ College: Issues To Watch For At IAF

I’m in New York this week for SBJ’s annual Learfield IMG College Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, which kicks off tomorrow morning. With seven commissioners, 18 ADs and other major industry stakeholders taking the stage, I anticipate some compelling headlines.

With the conference in full swing in the coming days, the SBJ College newsletter will take a break on Thursday. Be on the lookout for our SBJ All-Access newsletters from the event. The college newsletter will back next Tuesday as we head toward bowl season.

NAME/IMAGE/LIKENESS REMAINS A HOT TOPIC

• All of my conversations in New York this week are dominated by two things: Appalachian State’s departed football coach and the issue of name, image and likeness (NIL) in the college space. When the Learfield IMG College Intercollegiate Athletics Forum begins tomorrow morning, I expect NIL to be prevalent in just about every panel session. The three biggest topics I think we'll hear about the most:
  
  
• NIL
  • NCAA President Mark Emmert, the commissioners and ADs will opine on the matter. But I’m more interested in hearing what our panel of four athletes think about the ability to monetize their rights.
    
    
• Media
  • The Mountain West is in the home stretch of finalizing a new round of media rights, the SEC’s deal with CBS has taken on hot-button status and the Big Ten’s current contract with ESPN and Fox is up in 2022-23.
    
    
• Fan experience
  • Texas AD Chris Del Conte rewrote the playbook for creating unique fan events on game day. He takes the stage Thursday.
    
    

DINERS CLUB

• I don’t know what surprised me more -- that Ben Sutton invited Learfield IMG College's Greg Brown to his Teall Capital dinner last night or that Brown showed up. Brown and Sutton had been good friends and fierce business rivals for 25 years, but it hasn’t been the same since Sutton left IMG College nearly four years ago to go in a different direction with his investment fund. They haven’t been seen in the same circles nearly as often since then, so seeing them together at last night’s event made for a fun evening.
  
  
• The Teall Capital dinner, co-hosted by Bruin Sports Capital, drew a distinguished guest list from college sports media at Aureole on West 42nd Street in Manhattan. Sutton was joined at his table by Brown, CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus, ESPN Exec VP/Programming & Scheduling Burke Magnus, NBC Sports President of Programming Jon Miller and SBJ Publisher & Executive Editor Abe Madkour. But it was Sutton and Brown, who had Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch sitting between them, grabbing everyone’s attention.
  
  
• Last night also was when most of the big social activities happen during the week of the National Football Foundation’s annual gala. A black-tie dinner is tonight, followed by SBJ's conference tomorrow and Thursday. The ACC and Pac-12 also hosted functions at the Hilton Midtown last night, while JMI Sports held a dinner for clients at Del Frisco's in Midtown.
        

SPEED READS

• Texas AD Chris Del Conte this week hit the two-year mark in Austin. In fact, it was this week in 2017 that UT President Greg Fenves invited Del Conte to dinner and laid out his vision for the Longhorns. Del Conte told me about that dinner: “That was part of what inspired me. That meeting was quiet, it was clean, there wasn’t a bunch of speculation." In September, I wrote about how he has been the jolt of energy the Longhorns needed, transforming football game days with fan fests at Bevo Blvd. and Smokey’s Midway and booking top musical acts at Longhorn City Limits.
  
  
• Charlie Hussey’s promotion to deputy commissioner of the SEC comes as no surprise. Hussey, previously the conference’s COO and an SBJ "Forty Under 40" honoree in 2016, has essentially been filling the deputy role for the last few years. He has managed network relations with ESPN ever since SEC Network was formed and he’ll play a large part in determining the league’s media future.
  
  
• Duke Creative Director for Men's Basketball David Bradley knew the program had lightning in a bottle with Zion Williamson, and he made sure the Blue Devils made the most of his presence on social media. He told SBD's Joe Perez, "Off the court, he was as willing as anyone to get involved in what we were doing. He checked every box at a level I never thought was possible. There is never going to be another Zion. When that opportunity comes along, you want to be ready for it. It was shocking early on how much he moved the needle."
  
  
• The MLB Draft in June will move to Omaha and precede the College World Series, according to D1Baseball.com's Kendall Rogers. This has been discussed for years because of the awkward timing of the draft, when many top college players were still playing in the NCAA baseball tournament. With top college players now being able to attend, it could improve the visibility of the draft.
  
  
• Pac-12 schools could be kicking off at 9:00am PT as soon as the 2021 season, according to Fox Sports President Mark Silverman. While the conference is not likely to try the radical kickoff time in 2020, some schools have raised their hand for the following season. My colleague John Ourand talked to Silverman, who believes something can get done in the next 2-3 years. The Oregonian’s John Canzano says it won’t be the Ducks. “Oregon is not interested,” he wrote. “Athletic director Rob Mullens said earlier this season that he took the temperature with his coaching staff and fan base and a 9 a.m. kickoff is a no-go at Autzen Stadium.” He added: “Given that it’s not part of the current Fox contract, I can’t see why any Pac-12 university would sign on for this unless a seven-figure financial kicker was involved.”
  
  
• Boise State will bring back its baseball program in 2020, and when a new ballpark opens in 2021, the baseball field might be the same blue color as the school’s football field, coach Gary Van Tol said on the Baseball America podcast. “The biggest decision for me right now is what color is going to match with that for the infield dirt and mound and home plate,” he said.
  
  
• Hawaiian shirts, PS4 consoles, GoPro cameras, cowboy hats, watches, a fanny-pack (you read that right) and, of course, shopping sprees through suites packed with gifts for everyone on your holiday list: Per SBJ Research Director David Broughton, those are just a few of the goodies that bowl-bound football players will receive over the next few weeks from the committees that run the games, according to our 14th annual look at the postseason gift packages.

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of sports media. Also check out SBJ Football from Ben Fischer on Friday afternoons.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).