Welcome to the ACA (American College Athletics) forum, the new league of college sports.  

Before we get into the details of the ACA let's dive into how it was created. College athletics has been a huge part of history in the United States dating all the way back to 1852. With recent changes to college athletics such as NIL, it has changed the landscape of college sports forever. Some saw these changes as a positive and negative but it has shifted college athletics. So a private group of investors decided to create a new board of governors to create a college athletic league with equal rules for every school.  

Richard Martin was named the first governor of the American College Athletics league (ACA). This board consisted of 11 members who vote on rules and commission the league. The ACA believes just like the NHL, NFL and NBA there should be league wide rules and a CBA to make the playing field fair. The initial CBA between the athletic directors and the ACA board of directors was agreed upon on January 5th, 2025 and they announced the first season will begin right away.  

The first CBA for the football teams stated there will be an equal profit share across all teams. There will also be a $80 million dollar salary cap for each team. Instead of unlimited NIL, players will be allowed to be offered contracts from schools to play for them. Players can sign anywhere from 1-4 year contracts with schools (negotiated between player and coach within the signing period of May 15-July 3). Once a player signs a contract they must remain with that team for the whole contract unless a mutual release is agreed upon or a player decides to “transfer”. If a player decides to transfer while still under contract they will lose a year of eligibility and have to sit out the following season. Players will have 4 years of eligibility and can be granted a 5th year for either redshirting (playing 0 snaps) or due to a season ending IR injury (played less than 5 games). If a player's contract expires before they run out of eligibility they are free to transfer/negotiate with any other school during the signing period without having to sit out/losing a year of eligibility. Rosters will be capped at 65 man rosters with a maximum amount of 10 players allowed to be redshirted. All non redshirted players can dress on game day.   

The inaugural season will have 4 conferences and 5 teams per conference (totaling 20 teams). Each team will play a total of 10 regular season games, playing every team in their conference once and then filling in the rest of the schedule with non conference games. The playoffs will be quarter final bowls games with the 4 conference winners and the 4 other highest ranked teams remaining being seated 1 through 8 based on standings and strength of schedule being the tie breaker. The semis will have 2 more bowl games and conclude with a national championship. In the first season conference winners will be determined by best conference record. The rule book will use the current college rule book, including overtime.  

Next up inaugural conference and team announcements.