Come gather ‘round people, wherever you roam

And admit that the waters around you have grown

Bob Dylan penned the lyrics to his 1964 folk classic, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” during a period of serious cultural and political upheaval in America. Protests surrounding the Civil Rights Movement shook the country as young people sought to remake America in their own image. But something else happened in 1964, an event that rocked the very foundations of college sports.

On September 26, 1964, the Michigan State Spartans traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for a matchup with the North Carolina Tar Heels. The game, a 21-15 UNC win, wasn’t remarkable for what happened on the field, but, instead, for who was on the field. Duffy Daugherty’s Spartans became the first fully integrated football team ever to play in the South.

June 7, 2025, was also a watershed moment in college sports. Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California approved the long-awaited House v. NCAA settlement, opening the door for revenue sharing between Power 4 athletic departments and student-athletes. In other words, come July 1, players will be on the payrolls of athletic departments everywhere.

Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again

I’ve spilled lots of ink in this space opining on the coming changes to college sports. Until today, however, those changes had been mostly hypothetical or superficial. (Regardless of what anyone tells you, the pay-to-play era did not begin with NIL, NIL just made it legal.) Now, the hypothetical has become reality. National Letters of Intent and Athletic Grant-in-Aid forms will soon give way to something resembling employment contracts for student-athletes. Athletic departments are scrambling to institute policies related to revenue sharing, roster size and, most importantly, revenue distribution. Which sports do you favor most, and which players get a bigger slice of the pie than others? It’s like columnist Christmas.  

Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall

Just like any other time free-market policies begin to separate the haves from the have-mores, there is an expectation that the federal government will intervene. Whether it be through legislative action or executive fiat, NCAA powerbrokers are hoping the feds will step in to solve the problems they both created and then ignored for so long. Donald Trump, never one to miss a fight, has proposed a Presidential Commission on College Sports with an eye toward reining in NIL spending and the transfer portal, has encouraged college sports executives to work with legislators on a comprehensive national policy instead of relying on the patchwork of state laws that currently exist. But, if you’re waiting on the federal government to fix your problems, I’d advise you to not hold your breath. 

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land

And don’t criticize what you can’t understand

Beyond sports columnists and student-athletes, the group who stands to benefit the most from the latest NCAA shockwave, is, of course, lawyers. I expect an avalanche of lawsuits to begin as soon as the ink dries on the first revenue-share agreement.  What happens to non-revenue sports? What happens to traditional non-revenue sports that are occasionally revenue sports (looking at you, MSU baseball)? What are the Title IX implications for revenue sharing? It’s a great time to be a contract attorney. 

What’s missing from this discussion is the perspective of college sports’ most important constituents – fans. After all, none of this works without fan and alumni buy-in. Those eyeballs TV executives use to sell ads and pump up increasingly lucrative media contracts? They belong to real people. Increases in ticket, parking and concession prices necessary to fund this new big-money era will hit people where it hurts the most – in the wallet. 

Still, college sports are resilient. The 2024 College Football Playoff drew ratings on-par with NFL games. The 2025 NCAA Basketball Tournament had its highest ratings in almost 10 years. Fan interest is up, even if it’s increasingly directed at what’s happening off the field. College football, in particular, has always courted controversy. The sport integrated, conferences exploded and then imploded and coaching salaries soared, but fans remained as invested as ever.  Longtime observers know that every major change to the sport brings controversy and consternation. The difference here is that every modern change seems to be happening simultaneously.

But, perhaps that’s only a matter of perspective. Bob Dylan saw it coming way back in 1964.

The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast

The slow one now will later be fast

As the present now will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin’

And the first one now will later be last

For the times they are a-changin’

Philip Poe is sports editor.