STARKVILLE — Mississippi State Athletic Director Zac Selmon spoke for the university’s “Dialogue Matters” series held virtually Thursday. He fielded questions from viewers and discussed several topics concerning MSU athletics, but spoke at length on the many issues facing college athletics in its current model.
With President Mark Keenum’s standing in shaping the future of college football, the university and the culture around it have a natural interest in the department’s standing on what that future should look like.
Selmon spoke directly on the issue, and though the future is uncertain, he made it clear that the university’s efforts to uphold the amateurism of college athletics and remain committed to its student athletes hasn’t changed.
“What happens at the intersection of higher education and sport is life-changing, and that will never change,” Selmon said near the end of the 40-minute forum session.
He compared it to gas prices from when he first started driving to now – he may want gas to still be as cheap as it was then, but he’s not going to stop driving a car because of it.
His primary concern with the current uncertainty is that schools wouldn’t be able to shape a future that protects the amateurism of the game. Court cases are ongoing to determine whether or not the current model of college athletics breaches antitrust laws.
The biggest revenue driver in the sport has been and will continue to be broadcast revenue. Both TV and streaming networks bring in huge audiences with college football broadcasts and Selmon didn’t shy away from its importance. He said he wants to make sure football isn’t seen as a “favorite child,” but acknowledged the role football plays in driving the rest of the athletic program.
With football as a driver for the many other NCAA programs it only creates bigger questions about revenue and where it should go.
“The economics of college sports have totally changed,” Selmon said. “Over time there have been things to protect the amateurism of student-athletes, you talk about the governance structure of both NCAA and conferences, and over time there has been a push and pull of amateurism and this idea of commercialism because the broadcast revenues have gone up.”
Selmon maintained that viewership from college football has the ability to lift the “entire profile of our institution,” and puts value in broad-based programming as a way to channel football success into their other sports. Selmon hopes for a model that can provide greater rewards to the athletes that generate the revenue, but he wants schools to have a seat at the table when that new model is built.
“We’ve got a moment in time to first, fix the reality of the cases we’re going through, and second how can we forge ahead in the future and make sure we’re forward-thinking so that we as practitioners in the business can dictate where we go in the future as opposed to the court or the state.”
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