Karen Weaver and Harvard’s Michael Horn unpack how today’s “wild west” of college athletics is tied directly to higher ed’s larger demographic and financial crisis: peak high school grads are behind us, net tuition is flat or falling, and costs—especially in athletics—keep climbing. They connect moves like paying athletes, mega coaching salaries, women’s sports growth, and the transfer portal to business-world disruptions such as the rise of personal computers, overpaid legacy CEOs, undervalued growth stocks like early Netflix, and the end of non-compete agreements.