A framework for American basketball reform

New CourtOrder.

Cohesion. Transparency. Development.

American basketball is structurally broken — not accidentally. The money flows up and never comes back. Mid-majors bleed talent for free. JUCO programs develop players and get nothing. We're building the framework to change all of it.

600%
Revenue gap growth between Power programs and mid-majors since 2002
$0
Development fees paid to mid-majors when their players are signed away
$343M
New annual flow into lower tiers under the NCO framework
40%
Of Group of Five all-conference players transferred away in 2023. For free.
More cohesive basketball
Transparency at every tier
A level playing field
Development first
The problem

The system wasn't built to be fair.
It was built to grow.

And it has. For the schools at the top. Everyone else fights for scraps in a transfer portal with no rules, no compensation, and no financial floor.

01
The money never flows down

Big Ten: $63M per school per year. Typical mid-major: $3–5M. NBA development fees to colleges: zero. No mandatory redistribution mechanism exists at any level of the sport.

Senate Commerce Committee: revenue gap up 600% since 2002
02
Mid-majors are talent farms with no payday

40% of all-conference players in Group of Five conferences transferred to Power programs in 2023. The developing programs received zero compensation. Not one dollar.

Gonzaga basketball: 45% of entire athletic budget — existentially fragile
03
JUCO players punished for their path

Junior college years counted against NCAA eligibility the same as D1 years — despite no NIL opportunities, no national television, no meaningful professional path. The system penalizes development.

A JUCO program develops a player for 3 years. Kentucky signs them. JUCO gets $0.
04
AAU taxes the families who can least afford it

Elite AAU costs families $3,000–$10,000+ per season. European club academies cost families nothing. We've built a pay-to-play pipeline that systematically excludes lower-income talent.

European academies: 62% fundamentals. AAU: 38%. The gap is financial, not cultural.
About NCO

We want basketball
to be more cohesive.

New Court Order was founded on three beliefs: that basketball should be more cohesive, that there must be transparency and a level playing field at every tier, and that the entire system must prioritize the development of American players and teams from the ground up.

"We want transparency on all levels and a level playing field between tiers. And most of all, we want it to focus on the development of American players and teams at every tier."
— NCO Founding Statement, 2026
What we are

An independent reform organization with a governing body ambition.

NCO is not a think tank that publishes and waits. We are building a coalition, advocating for federal and institutional reform, and working toward a formal governing role in the restructured pyramid we have designed.

Every mechanism in our framework has a proven precedent in European football — solidarity payments, training compensation fees, promotion and relegation, transfer windows. We didn't invent these ideas. We applied them to American basketball for the first time with full financial modeling.

Publishing research
White papers, financial models, and policy analysis on college sports reform. All publicly available. All sourced from Senate filings, NCAA financial reports, and verified media rights data.
Building coalition
Mid-major ADs, NJCAA programs, reform coaches, player advocates, and Congressional staff. People with institutional standing, not just opinions.
Advocating for federal reform
Senate Commerce Committee engagement. SCORE Act. The College Sports Commission. Wherever structural decisions are being made, NCO is in the room.
The 10-year arc

From white paper to governing body.

This is not a 2-year project. Reform at this scale takes a decade. Here is the honest roadmap.

2026–27
Phase 1 — Foundation
White paper published. Coalition formed.
NCO launches publicly. Mid-major AD advisory board established. Congressional testimony. Media brand, Substack, and social platforms launched. 10,000+ founding coalition members recruited.
2027–29
Phase 2 — Advocacy
Federal legislation introduced. NBA in dialogue.
SCORE Act engagement. NJCAA formal partnership signed. First NCO annual summit. NBA development levy proposal formally submitted. 5+ Power conference programs piloting development fee agreements.
2029–31
Phase 3 — Pilot
Voluntary agreements. First solidarity payments.
10+ programs in voluntary development fee network. 2 conferences piloting solidarity model. 5 NBA franchise academy partnerships. March Madness FA Cup structure piloted at conference level.
2031+
Phase 4 — Institutionalization
Federal framework. NCO as governing body.
All five tiers formally operational. Development levy mandatory. March Madness FA Cup structure fully implemented. NCO formally constituted as the governing and administrative body of the pyramid.
The NCO framework

Five tiers. One tournament.
Money flows both ways.

Modeled on the English football pyramid — with promotion, relegation, transfer windows, solidarity payments, and development compensation fees that create financial incentives for player development at every level.

Click any tier to expand its financial details →

I
Apex — Closed NBA — 30 franchises
$14.3B annual revenue · $76B media deal (2025–36) · Currently pays $0 in development fees

The apex of the pyramid. Closed — no promotion or relegation. But the NBA has an obligation to fund the pipeline that produces its players. Currently that obligation is $0 in formal development fees to American programs. Under NCO, a mandatory 1% development levy — $143M per year — changes that. The levy is 3.3% of each team's television revenue. Financially immaterial. Structurally transformative.

Development levy (1%)
$143M/yr
Flows to Tiers 2, 3, and 4
Cost per NBA team
$4.8M/yr
3.3% of TV money — immaterial
Current dev. fees paid
$0
No formal mechanism exists today
European precedent
£69M/yr
Premier League mandatory academy investment
▼ Development levy $143M/yr ▲ Better-developed draft picks entering the league
II
Semi-professional Power 6 conferences — ~75 programs
ACC · Big Ten · SEC · Big 12 · Big East · 6th conf. · $63M/school conf. dist. · $20.5M House rev. share cap

The elite tier of university basketball. Formally semi-professional under the House settlement revenue sharing model. Under NCO, Tier 2 programs carry a solidarity obligation to Tier 3 — the same obligation the Premier League carries to the Championship. They also operate within structured transfer windows that create roster stability and a loan system enabling player development partnerships with Tier 3.

Conf. dist. range
$42–63M/yr per school
Big Ten leads at $63M
House rev. share cap
$20.5M/yr to athletes
Rising annually through 2035
Solidarity obligation (5%)
~$200M/yr total
Flows to all Tier 3 programs
Transfer windows
June 15–July 31 / Jan 1–15
Buyout clauses + loan system
▼ $200M solidarity/yr ↕ Promotion/relegation ▲ Dev. fees $250K–$1M per player transferred up
III
Amateur+ Mid-major conferences — ~200 programs
A10 · WCC · MWC · MVC · MAC · Sun Belt · AAC · MAAC... · April transfer window only · Dev. fee economy

The largest and most important tier in the pyramid for genuine American player development. Under NCO, mid-major programs stop being talent farms and become financially viable selling clubs. The combination of solidarity payments, development fees, and buyout income transforms the financial position of every Tier 3 program in the country.

Solidarity payment (new)
+$1M/yr per program
Mandatory from Tier 2 conferences
Dev. fees (2 players/yr)
+$500K–$2M/yr
$250K–$1M per player signing Tier 2
Budget impact (avg $40M)
+4% to +8%/yr
Cumulative 10-yr gain: ~$25M
Buyout protection
$250K–$1M per player
Transfer poaching must pay a fee
▼ NBA levy share to Tier 4 ↕ Promotion/relegation ▲ Dev. fees $50K–$150K per player transferred up
IV
Development JUCO + regional leagues — 500+ programs
NJCAA D1, D2, D3 + regional semi-pro leagues · No eligibility clock penalty under NCO · Formal promotion pathway

Today: JUCO programs receive zero from the system they feed. A program can spend three years developing a player who signs with a Power 6 school and receive nothing. Under NCO, Tier 4 programs become formal development entities with a financial incentive structure that rewards developing players well. For a $1M annual budget program, development fees represent a 20–30% budget increase.

Current system revenue
~$0
No formal mechanism exists
NBA levy share (new)
+$65K avg/program
From $33M Tier 4 pool
Dev. fees 2–3 players/yr
+$100–300K/yr
$50–150K per player signing Tier 3
Eligibility change
No clock penalty
JUCO years no longer burn eligibility
▼ Development compensation flows up on every player advancement
V
Grassroots Club academies — ages 8–18 — nationwide
Replaces AAU · Free to families · NBA-funded via levy · Club registration at age 14 · Dev. compensation flows up

The foundation of the entire system. Every Tier 2 and Tier 3 program sponsors a regional youth club academy. NBA franchises fund regional academies through the Development Levy. Players register with a club at age 14. Development compensation flows back to the originating academy when players advance. Free to families. Merit-based. The complete structural inversion of the AAU pay-to-play model.

Cost to families
$0
vs $3,000–$10,000/season AAU
Funded by
NBA levy + universities
Tier 2/3 programs sponsor academies
Fundamentals training
62% (European standard)
vs 38% in current AAU programs
Dev. comp. on advancement
$10–25K per player
Flows back to originating academy
The FA Cup moment
March Madness — the unified bracket
Open to all tiers. Tier 4 play-in in February. Tier 3 bracket in early March. Tier 2 Power 6 programs enter at the Round of 64. Anyone can win. When a Tier 3 mid-major beats a Tier 2 Power 6 program, that is a giant killing. And under NCO, it pays like one.
$4.1M
per giant-killing upset
(tournament unit + $2M bonus)
Coalition — who needs to say yes

Reform requires the right allies.

The NBA
Development investment without structure
Mid-major athletic directors
Most motivated constituency in college sports
Congress
Federal interest at historic high
Players & NBPA
Democratizing access to elite development
NJCAA
"Same Game Same Rules" — already fighting
Why they're in
The NBA

The NBA's G League Ignite program shut its doors in 2024 after failing to create a viable domestic development alternative. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has publicly supported structural reform and already funds global academies running the exact club model NCO proposes. The NBA's interest in better-developed draft picks is directly aligned with NCO's goals.

NCO delivers: better-prepared players entering the draft. The 1% levy ($143M/yr) is 3.3% of TV money — financially immaterial to franchises, structurally transformative to the pyramid.
Research & publications

Every claim sourced.
Every number real.

NCO publishes primary research, financial models, and policy analysis on college sports reform. All documents are freely available. All data is sourced from Senate filings, NCAA financial reports, and verified media rights data.

Financial model
The Money Trail: Where Basketball Revenue Flows and Where It Should
Full five-tier financial model with current flows, proposed NCO flows, and European precedent mapping.
Available
Policy brief
The JUCO Pipeline: Why Junior College Players Are Penalized and How to Fix It
Deep dive into the NJCAA reform movement, the Pavia case, and the 5-in-5 implications for Tier 4.
Coming Q3 2026
Coalition brief
Mid-Major Financial Fragility: The Case for Development Fees
Program-level financial analysis for 20 mid-major programs. The Gonzaga and VCU case studies with 10-year projections.
In progress
Key data

The numbers that make the case.

Every figure is cited. Every source is named. This is not opinion — it is documented structural failure.

$14.3B
NBA annual revenue — pays $0 in development fees to American basketball programs
Sportico, 2025–26
600%
Growth in the revenue gap between Power programs and mid-majors since 2002
Senate Commerce Committee, Sept. 2025
$0
Development fees paid to mid-majors or JUCOs when their players are signed away
No mechanism exists — NCO analysis
$933M
Total NIL economy in college basketball — with no structural architecture beneath it
On3 / SportsEpreneur, 2025–26
45%
Of Gonzaga's entire athletic budget from one sport — existential financial fragility
Dept. of Education EADA, 2022–23
£69M
Premier League mandatory annual investment in academies across the full pyramid
Premier League Annual Report, 2024–25
Prior art

Related academic work

The closest existing academic treatment — "Losing Matters: A European Association Football Model for NCAA Men's Basketball" (The Sport Journal, 2025) — proposes using promotion and relegation to fix tournament seeding and conference alignment. The NCO framework goes substantially further: complete ecosystem redesign including the development fee mechanism, club academy replacement for AAU, full five-tier financial architecture, FA Cup March Madness structure, and a formal governing body model. The prior work validates the conceptual premise. NCO delivers the complete implementation framework.

Join the founding coalition

The pyramid is building itself.
Name it.

Mid-major ADs, reform coaches, player advocates, journalists, and reform-minded voices — the framework is ready. The white paper is published. Now we build the coalition that makes it real.

Founding members receive: full white paper · monthly reform briefings · early access to coalition events

Who we need

Every tier of the pyramid.
Every stakeholder in the sport.

🏛
Athletic directors
Mid-major ADs are the most motivated constituency in this coalition. They have the most to gain and the most to lose from inaction.
  • Founding advisory board seats
  • Early access to development fee framework
  • Direct voice in NCO governance model
📣
Media & amplifiers
Journalists, podcasters, Substack writers, and social media voices who can bring this framework to the people who need to hear it.
  • Press access to NCO research
  • Exclusive data and financial models
  • Direct sourcing and attribution
Find us

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The reform debate is happening right now. We're in it.