2StripesCPD Digital, Vol. 7

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I don't think it's an overstatement to say that this week will go down as one of the most consequential weeks in college sports history. The NCAA's landmark agreement with schools to finally allow player payment has been a long time in the making, and we're finally here. Only time will tell what that means for the landscape of college football, but prepare yourselves: Massive change is coming.

A moment in history

If the sham of amateurism in college athletics wasn't already dead, it just took a knife to the heart:

There's so much red tape here that I can't even begin to try and describe what all of this entails or what things will look like in college football/sports overall because of it, but here are (most of) the key things I'm taking from it:

• The NCAA will distribute $2.8 billion in back damages to former athletes.
• They're establishing a revenue-sharing model starting in 2025 where schools can distribute 22% of their average athletic department revenue to their athletes.
• Scholarship caps for football are dead. But if your initial reaction to that is, "My favorite team can have 120 guys on scholarship now," think again. Teams can put as many players as they want on scholarship, but it has to be within the yet-to-be-determined new roster limits. We went over how foolish the proposed 85-man limit idea is in last week's 2StripesCPD Digital, and it sounds like there was at least enough pushback on it for decision-makers to up the number in whatever the final agreement will look like. It needs to be said that getting rid of walk-ons is still a horrific idea, regardless of the number they land on.
• As for what this might mean for the transfer portal? Schools now have the ability to sign athletes to "potentially binding, multi-year contracts." That probably doesn't mean the eradication of the portal, but it's significant.
• It seems like no one has a clue yet on how exactly Title IX plays into this. I'm not very smart when it comes to stuff like this, but even I know that's a gigantic hurdle that will have to play out in a courtroom.

There's a bunch of other important stuff relating to this decision that will impact and change college football as we know it going forward, and you can read about the basics of it here.

The College Football Playoff on TNT

While TNT's days of broadcasting the NBA may be coming to a close, get ready to learn college football playoff on the network for at least the next five years: