How will college sports look by 2050? Big changes are ahead for URI

Predicting the future isn't easy. Back in 2000, who would have thought that by 2025 the Pawtucket Red Sox would no longer exist, or Rhode Island's first female governor would be telling people to "Knock it off" as a pandemic shutdown the state?

Now, as we embark on the second quarter of the 21st century, what could Rhode Island look like in 2050? The staff at The Providence Journal asked leaders in their field for their respective thoughts on what they think Rhode Island will look like in 2050. Here's what they have to say.

What will Rhode Island college sports look like in 2050?

Name: Shane Donaldson

Hometown: Middletown native

Title: University of Rhode Island associate athletic director for communication and new media

Shane Donaldson started working with the University of Rhode Island athletic department barely a year after Instagram was founded. 

Snapchat and Zoom were still counting their respective lifespans in months when Donaldson moved from communications and marketing with the school to the lead sports information role with the Rams' football program in November 2011. To think how quaint those social media debuts were compared with the current landscape in the NCAA. 

“Whether it’s more photos, the advent of social media – which was a whole new thing when I was first getting started – has changed things,” said Donaldson, URI's associate athletic director for communication and new media. “The NIL landscape has really impacted everything.” 

Those three letters dominate the college sports scene as we exit 2025. Name, image and likeness encompasses more than just an athlete’s personal rights to his or her marketing and financial opportunities. Direct payments from boosters through collectives and, as seemed inevitable, schools themselves have turned the taboo into the expected. 

“For a school like ours, we’re trying to create new revenue streams to keep up in the landscape,” Donaldson said. “How possible is that? How much long term can you keep that going?” 

Football and men’s basketball receive the lion’s share of the cash in the NCAA, thanks to lucrative broadcast, streaming and multimedia contracts. The House settlement, which was granted federal court approval in June, will pay athletes $2.8 billion in back damages dating to 2016 and allow revenue sharing. URI’s challenge moving forward remains largely the same – building competitive programs against schools that boast greater resources. 

“It’s a lot easier to answer if you’re a Power Four school and you’ve had that pocket of money and you’ve been sitting on it for years,” Donaldson said. “Now it’s legal to use it. It’s different for most of the rest of the NCAA.” 

[email protected]

On X: @BillKoch25 

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: How will college sports look by 2050? Big changes are ahead for URI