MLB exec to lead new college enforcement arm

The approval of the House settlement on Friday night is expected to usher an imminent overhaul to how college sports work.

One of the most prominent changes will come together quickly, as Major League Baseball executive Bryan Seeley will become the CEO of the new College Sports Commission. Sources told ESPN that Seeley has been the target for the role for weeks, and the long-awaited formalization of the House settlement will trigger his hire.

A spokesperson for the CSC told ESPN that Seeley will be announced shortly in that role. Sources told ESPN that Seeley is expected to make seven figures in the new role, as he’ll quickly become one of the the most prominent figures in college sports.

Seeley is MLB’s executive vice president, legal & operations, and he brings investigative experience, which will be key in this role. In the post-settlement era, the NCAA will no longer be in charge of the enforcement of most rules. (It will still maintain purview over things like academics, but it will not patrol benefits.)

The CSC is the new era’s enforcement arm that will have final say in doling out punishments and deciding when rules have been broken. It’s one of the most important roles in this new era, as the industry has been craving some type of guidance since the advent of name, imagine and likeness has made the descriptor “wild, wild West” a common one in regards to the generally unregulated college sports industry.

In Seeley, college sports will be getting a seasoned investigator with experience in both the private sector and professional sports. It’s the type of background the power conference commissioners sought in their search for the role. The CSC, which Seeley will be the head of, is described in a release as an “independent body that will be responsible for implementing the settlement terms governing revenue sharing, student-athlete Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals and roster limits.”

Following Seeley’s graduation from Harvard Law School, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., prosecuting federal white-collar fraud and public corruption cases as well as local violent crime.

MLB hired Seeley to take over its Department of Investigations in 2014. The department covers a wide swath of responsibilities, including domestic-violence, performance-enhancing-drug and age-fraud cases. Seven years ago, Seeley added compliance and security to his management portfolio, and he ascended to executive vice president in 2022. Over his decade plus at MLB, Seeley earned a reputation as a strong and competent manager whose department, which had let go of three employees following allegations of unethical behavior, consistently delivered solid work.

In March, Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski summed up the role of enforcement in the new era as having to be more efficient and punitive than when the NCAA was in charge of enforcement.

“We’ve screwed this thing up now to the point where we have to be willing to draw a line in the sand, and that will create some pain,” Bobinski told ESPN then. “There’s no two ways about it, and we’ll find out who’s just going to insist on stepping over the line. But if they do, you got to deal with it forcefully and quickly.”

The new era will not be without its complications. The CEO is in charge of running the systems that have been put into place by the commissioners — LBi Software and accounting firm Deloitte have been lined up to handle salary cap management and to manage the clearinghouse for NIL. Those NIL deals will be outside of the revenue share directly from schools, and how they are approved has been the focus of much conversation around the sports.

The clearinghouse that Deloitte has established will be known as NIL Go, which will be used to verify whether any deals between athletes and boosters or associated entities are for a valid business purpose, rather than a recruiting incentive. It’s described as a new technology platform that will be in place to assure that athletes’ NIL deals are in compliance with the rules.

According to information distributed at recent spring meetings, for example, investigations into athlete deals under the CSC are recommended to be resolved in 45 days. That’s a distinct shift from the ponderous NCAA process.

According to sources, the association documents being circulated for schools to sign to enter the new era detail the CEO’s role as making “final factual findings and determinations” on violations of rules. The CEO also will “impose such fines, penalties or other sanctions as appropriate” in accordance with the rules.