The closest Bryan Seeley was to work in university sports was to spend 40 hours a week to cover them for the Daily Princetonian during his days as the first cycle at Ivy League school.
Now, the longtime leader of Major League Baseball is about to play a whole new role, leading a brand new organization, which could make him one of the most powerful people in university sports.
Friday evening, Seeley, 46, was appointed the CEO of College Sports Commission, The application agency launched by the richest and most powerful conferences to supervise and implement the system which will allow for the first time the direct payments of the NCAA schools to athletes.
The official announcement of hiring of the CSC and the Seeley occurred about two hours after a The federal judge approved the regulation of $ 2.8 billion of a trio of antitrust proceedings facing the NCAA and the main conferences of the colleges.
A fan of self-written university sports, Seeley brings more than a decade of experience in terms of compliance, application, surveys and policies development at the MLB, as well as eight years with the American Ministry of Justice and a Harvard law diploma.
He said he was attracted to work by the opportunity to do university sports through a transition period and in a new era.
“I consider this as an area where I can really add value,” said Seeley Athletics Sunday in his first interview since a press release announced her hiring.
University sports have a long history of incoherent rules of application and plinth to obtain a competitive advantage. NCAA will always supervise the rules related to academics and eligibility, but the systems installed to regulate the income sharing ceiling schools must respect, assess the equitable value of the name, image and resemblance between athletes and third parties and the limits of the surveillance list will be offset by Seeley and CSC.
He will fall under a council made up of the commissioners of the electricity conference.
“I think it’s a good and new starting point. So everything that existed in advance does not need to be what exists in the future,” said Seeley. “Culture does not change the night. I do not expect it to happen overnight, but I think that schools that have signed the regulations wish to rules and want the rules to be applied. Otherwise, they would not have signed the regulations. I think student-athletes want a different system. So I think there is a desire to apply the rules. There is a desire for transparency. “
Seeley does not have an official start date, but there is no time to waste. Universities can start to share income directly with university athletes from July 1. The failure center to assess the Nile third -party offers for athletes worth at least $ 600, managed by the accounting firm Deloitte, is online on Wednesday.
Schools in power conferences should sign official agreements to be followed by the decisions rendered by Seeley and external arbitrators.
“I have received nothing, but I know that by reading on this subject, there is the support of institutions,” said Seeley.
Seeley built the MLB survey unit, with lawyers and former law enforcement agents.
“During his stay at MLB, Bryan demonstrated unrivaled integrity, a commitment to equity and the ability to navigate complex challenges with precision and care,” said the baseball league commissioner Rob Manfred, in a press release. “I have no doubt that he will bring the same level of excellence to the College Sports Commission. University sports will greatly benefit from the expertise and vision of Bryan. ”
Seeley’s first task at the CSC is to build staff again.
“These will be more private surveys, right?” According to Seeley. “We have no power of assignment. We do not have a search for research. I have been working in this system for more than a decade, so I am well suited to continue doing so with university sports. ”
He added: “I think I am one of the few people in the country who probably conducted surveys on the bypass of wage capital, and therefore in terms of subject, at least for part of this, I have a lot of experience.”
The MLB teams do not work under a hard salary ceiling, but there is one for the international acquisition system for amateur talents of the League.
One of the most important cases that Seeley investigated came in 2017, when the Braves of Atlanta were noted for bypassing international amateur signature rules over a period of three years. The director general of the brave, John Coppolella, received a five -year ban on his role in violations. In a separate survey, the Seeley group found that the Boston Red Sox had also cheated on the international amateur market. In this case, punishment was imposed in 2016.
While the highest levels of university sports are becoming more and more similar to professional sports, Seeley has rejected the idea that power conferences are trying to create another professional league.
“University sports are his own unique thing, and what makes university sports that need to stay,” said Seeley. “Part of the system we are going to bring for the application is a system that has been used in the world of professional sport, but it has been used in other worlds.
– AthleticsEvan Drellich contributed the reports.
(Photo: Phil Didion / Imagn Images)