AUBURN | Oh, so you’re forming a committee.

I’m sure that will solve all of the real or imagined problems in college athletics.

Hasn’t the feckless NCAA, perhaps the worldwide leader in committee meetings, already proven how ineffective they are when it comes to solving complex issues?

The latest news from the strange world of college athletics is the potential creation of a presidential commission on college athletics that may be led by former Alabama coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban and Texas Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell.

It will generate headlines while accomplishing absolutely nothing. It won’t have the power or authority to do anything but make noise.

It’s just another shot in the dark by the NCAA, college sports administrators and athletic directors, who are desperate to slow down the seismic changes that have dismantled the pillars of amateurism that ruled college athletics for a more than a century.

They’ve been toppled by the courts and there’s turning back the clock now or ever.

And it’s not the fault of the players or the lawyers or the courts. It’s squarely on the shoulders of the NCAA and the leadership of college athletics that lacked the vision and common sense to know their anti-antitrust arguments stood no chance in a court of law.

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 against them in the Alston case in 2021. This Supreme Court in the most polarized political era of my lifetime. Nine to zero.

If a judge gives final approval, the NCAA may finally settle the $2.8 billion House lawsuit in the next couple of weeks, which will officially begin the era of revenue sharing in college athletics.

Forming a new committee or continuing to throw millions of dollars at lobbyists in hopes of national legislation remains a fool’s errand.

The best course of action has always been to recognize athletes as employees and collectively bargain with them. Had it been done six, seven, eight years ago by leaders with vision, college athletics would look a lot different now.

I doubt college athletes would have gotten close to the approximately $20.5 million per school they’ll be due next year if the House settlement goes through. Transfer and eligibility rules could have all been hammered out in a much more favorable position for college programs.

But now that bargaining power is gone.

The starting point is $20.5 million, unlimited transfers and eligibility rules that seem to change monthly as the NCAA loses more lawsuits.

How much more money would it take to limit transfers and set firmer eligibility rules? Who knows. But it’s still worth sitting down at the table and hashing it out rather than letting the courts decide.

We got here because of poor leadership and that leadership continues to fight a losing battle.

A new presidential commission isn’t going to change that. It’s just going to further delay the potential for a real settlement and bring further chaos to an already out of control situation.

***

Unlike revenue sharing, NIL, transfers and eligibility, there appears to be consensus building when it comes to future SEC schedules and the college football playoff format in 2026.

According to the Athletic’s Andrew Marchand and Seth Emerson, ESPN is willing to pay $50 to $80 million more to the SEC for a ninth conference game.

The nine-game conference schedule could be approved at the SEC meetings in Destin, Fla., at the end of this month. That would mean three permanent and six rotating opponents with the opportunity to play every team in the league home and away over a four-year period.

For Auburn, Alabama and Georgia will be two of the permanent opponents while Vanderbilt is a likely candidate to be the third.

This will play right into the plans for a potential new 16-team college football playoff that will likely use a 4-4-2-2-1-3 format that includes four automatic bids for the SEC and Big Ten, two automatic bids for the Big 12 and ACC, one for the Group of 5 and three at-large. Notre Dame would be guaranteed a spot if it finishes in the top 14.

It could also include play-in games with the 3rd-place finisher in the SEC playing 6th and 4th playing 5th for the final two spots in the playoff.

The SEC and Big Ten have the power to change the format and the changes are being driven by the need for more revenue, which will certainly be generated from the extra games.

I like both the nine-game conference schedule and 16-team playoff. I’d like it even more if the playoffs were played on campus for at least the first two rounds. All the way through the semifinals would be fantastic.

I’m not as bothered as some by the four guaranteed spots for the SEC and Big Ten. It’s the inevitable conclusion to the two power conferences hoarding 22 of the last 27 national champions from the BCS/playoff era.

The SEC and Big Ten won that battle and now they’re setting the terms.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 58 years to the release of one of the greatest songs of all time that became an anthem of the Summer of Love and has been covered by more than 1,000 other artists. On May 12, 1967, Procol Harum released their debut single, “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” which quickly rose to No. 1 on the UK Singles chart and eventually peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 100. It also peaked at No. 1 in 14 other countries. It’s one of only 44 singles to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide. The song was written by Keith Reid and composed by Gary Brooker, the founder of Procol Harum, and Matthew Fisher. Reid came up with the lyrics after overhearing someone at a party tell a woman, “You’ve turned a whiter shade of pale.” It was originally twice as long but two verses were removed from the song for the single. The band often played the full-length version during concerts. The song has been a part of a number of films and T.V. shows including The Big Chill and Ken Burns’ documentary, The Vietnam War. Rolling Stone ranks “A Whiter Shade of Pale” 57th on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

Procol Harum were formed in Essex, England in 1967 by Brooker, who played piano and was the lead singer, Reid, Fisher, who played keyboards, guitarist Ray Royer, bassist David Knights and drummer Bobby Harrison. They named themselves after a friend’s Burmese cat, whose pedigree name was Procul Harun, which the band misspelled after hearing the name over the phone. Fisher left the group in 1969 but would return on a couple of occasions. He later sued for a percentage of songwriting credit for “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” and won a 40 percent composer’s share in 2006. Fisher went on to become a record producer and computer programmer. The group produced nine albums before breaking up in 1977. They had a couple of other minor hits in 1967’s “Homburg” and 1972’s “Conquistador.” They reunited for a 10th album in 1991 and played concerts and toured during parts of the 1990’s and 2000’s with a number of personnel changes over the decades. They also released albums in 2003 and 2017. Brooker and Harrison passed away in 2022, and Reid in 2023.