Featuring Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti, the Director of the MS in Sports Management Program and Associate Professor at George Washington University’s School of Business, recognized as one of the top 25 innovators and influencers in sport.
How is the landscape of collegiate athletics changing from amateurism to commercialism, and what are the implications? We sat down with Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti to explore what it means for institutions to adapt, how they are redefining athletic operations, and what it will take to thrive in this new era of collegiate sports.
At the heart of the disruption is the House v. NCAA settlement, a landmark decision that marks the official end of amateurism in college sports. “It’s the Wild West,” Dr. Neirotti shared. “Everyone’s trying to figure it out.” Colleges are no longer just nurturing student-athletes, they’re now managing compensation, recruitment strategy, and athletic branding on a scale in line with professional sports leagues like the National Football League..This shift has translated to colleges hiring general managers (GMs) who work directly with coaches to recruit talent and assign monetary value to athletes. Under the settlement, the NCAA can let schools pay student-athletes directly, up to $20.5 million per year starting in 2025–26. IAs a result, schools must now navigate a delicate balance between performance and affordability.
Dr. Neirotti notes that most schools are not prepared to fully capitalize on this model. Only a small subset of universities are making millions in athletics revenue, primarily from football and basketball. For the rest, it's an aspirational benchmark.
GMs are now responsible not just for talent recruitment but also for financial strategy.“If a quarterback is commanding $4 million, how does that compare with what we can afford?” she asked. These decisions must factor in other sports and Title IX compliance, creating new layers of complexity for athletic department
The impact of this shift goes beyond campus boundaries. Winning conferences secure more lucrative TV rights and sponsorships, which in turn attract better talent and more funding. Universities are scrambling to reposition themselves in this new hierarchy.
But perhaps the most radical development? The growing trend of spinning off athletic departments into private LLCs. “It’s already happening,” Dr. Neirotti said, citing the University of Kentucky as one example. Through these models, private investors could fund high-revenue sports like football and basketball in exchange for branding rights, freeing up university resources to support less commercialized sports.
Such moves, however, raise big questions: Will this separate athletics from academics entirely? Will donor fatigue stall this model? And what becomes of the student-athlete experience?
What we’re witnessing is not just a financial evolution, it’s a cultural transformation. As universities forge into this new frontier, they’ll need to balance profit with purpose. Time will tell what comes of this new landscape. What is clear is the colleges and universities that effectively pivot will thrive in the future.
Watch Dr. Neirotti's full #PivotAndThrive interview.
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