Texas is the other state with enough teams in the NCAA that enacting a similar law would tip things to option 3.

Question is if both states, under regulatory capture, will allow any similar law to pass. I dare say that NCAA sports are bigger business in Texas and Florida by percent when compared to California, which has other very profitable industries. Thus the college boards have a far deeper connection to the legislature. So in a prisoners dilemma, either both of them can choose not to pass similar legislation, keeping the money out of the hands of athletes, or either state will pass similar legislation in order to complete with California for athletes. The other state would have to follow to compete for athletes, forcing the NCAA's hand to go with option 3.

Texas is unlikely to lead the way on such legislation and will have to be a reluctant follower if this is to play out nationwide. In general they don't like to mess with the autonomy of their institutions, do not require the incentive to keep players in state, and acknowledge in top-heavy big-12 country that the status quo is still a very healthy situation for most (i.e. all people that aren't top-level players). That often goes with all Texas legislation on national concerns, they tend to wait for things to play out.

>D0 is not really on the table because it is dilutive to 'P5' school earnings vs today's system of pretending to include G5 while excluding them from the big payouts.

Actually, currently, P5 schools lose money on the other schools in college football. The D0, in my mind, is not so much about California, as it is about evening out the chances of all the P5 schools. Right now you have to pay to play all these low level schools, which for a lot of P5 schools really does eat into profits. Additionally, in the current structure, the SEC for instance might play FCS teams and then fewer conference foes. This makes an uneven playing field for the BIG 12 or PAC 12 or what have you. So if you want a more even shot at one of the big 4 slots, you have to either pay out more money to play an extra low level school, or get the SEC to play an extra conference game. It's a bit more complex than that, because for instance OSU has plenty of money, but the conference won't let them play an additional cupcake. But you get the idea.

Now I'd bet a lot of the AD's would never actually admit it, but D0 is probably an attempt to tilt the scales in their direction by eliminating these, and other, structural impediments to their own success.

D0 is a made up concept by fans. No P5 AD wants to lose the money on home games or eyeballs for their games by moving to a 'smaller' division.

Currently P5 programs choose to play FCS opponents because they make so much revenue on home games that it is worth paying an FCS team a few million. The reason the math works is that the TV deals are already set, and the only incremental money they can make is through ticket sales to 100k fans.

I could see this scenario, but the NCAA would have to worry about losing their sanctioned monopoly status if they started punishing teams for following their state's laws.

What are these numbers, D0, P5, G5?

D0 == Division 0. Right now all the top teams play in Division 1 athletics, with a bunch of other teams that generally don't get nearly as much money or notoriety but give the top teams some other teams to "beat up on" so to speak (although they do sometimes lose). Division 0 is this idea that the Power 5 (see below) would form their own division.

Right now there are three divisions, and they are based on school size, which is why all the big schools are division 1 but there is a big difference in quality. The idea here is to take the top teams and split off regardless of school size.

P5 == Power 5. These are the five conferences that have almost all the top teams. Big ten, Big 12, the ACC, the Pac-12, and the SEC.

G5 == Group of 5. These are there conferences with the lesser know teams. American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt

Where can I read about this? Are conferences what divisions are subdivided into?

Just google college athletic divisions.

The g5 and p5 are media constructs (not official) designations to help with ratings and assign teams to various invitational competitions like the college football playoffs.

Division 0 (instead of DI, DII(2), or DIII(3) divisions on collegiate sports.

P5 = Power 5 conference, ie ACC, SEC, Pac12, Big12, Big10

G5 = No idea.