Reframing the Collegiate Facilities Arms Race: The Looming Impact of NIL and Conference Realignment

Amidst the backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic, the summer of 2021 brought forth two events teetering the Division I college sport landscape at the precipice of unprecedented change due to two fundamental shifts: the first being the opening of revenue streams to collegiate athletes through use of name, image and likeness (NIL), and the second being the latest round of athletic conference realignment. With the impacts of these changes just beginning to be manifested, it is important to consider how these potentially seismic shifts in the collegiate landscape may influence existing issues of prior scholarly examination as well as potential new areas of research. As such, the purpose of this paper is to identify areas of potential future research and inquiry associated with the NIL and conference realignment that could be addressed from the facilities perspective.