If you are a college athletic administrator of one of the major conference schools, keeping up with the always-evolving NCAA guidelines regarding student-athletes has been challenging these last few years.
First, there was the transfer portal, which now allows student-athletes to transfer from school to school freely without any loss of years or eligibility. Then came the name, image and likeness deals, aka NIL, that allowed student-athletes to be compensated by outside sources for the first time.
But the biggest game-changer came this summer when a settlement was reached that now allows colleges, primarily in the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12, to share revenue from broadcast rights, ticket sales and marketing efforts with their student-athletes. The official change took effect July 1.
It’s been a bit much for administrators like University of Houston athletic director Eddie Nunez to get his arms around. But now that it’s here, Nunez has embraced the change and believes it’s time to get onboard.
“What we are about to embark upon may have some similar challenges,” Nunez said in a recent interview with the Defender. “There is going to be changes, we know that. From my perspective, having to deal with all of these new changes, it’s not that we are concerned or frustrated. More than anything else, it’s having clear direction. We’ve never had as clear a path to be as good as we could have been.
“That’s why I’m excited about this. I think if everybody out there stopped fighting and stopped creating negative narratives about what this is going to be or this is not going to work. The reality is, we all better hope it works because this is where college football, college basketball and college athletics is. For us to be successful, we’d better buy into it, we’d better understand it, we’d better do what we have to do because as we move forward we can give this a chance to really be great for us.”
Starting this fall, athletes from football and men’s basketball at most schools will get the major share of $20.5 million per year at most of the schools in the Power 5 conferences. In some cases, that money may also trickle down to women’s basketball, volleyball and even baseball. As part of the $2.8 billion House v NCAA settlement agreement, scholarships on all recognized NCAA sports will go uncapped and schools must provide $2.5 million of the $20.5 million to fund all scholarships.
This way, all student athletes win.
“The reality is you’ve just got to adapt or die,” University of Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte said to the Defender. “I still value education. Where I came from, education changed my life through sports. But the idea of the evolution of being able to provide publicity rights for young people, I get that, too.
“The advent of television, all of the new platforms. The ecosystem has changed. What’s really evolved is your scholarship has evolved, too. It’s a little greater in terms of sharing in publicity rights for student athletes. I understand it and look forward to moving forward in a new direction.”
While it seems like an expensive move for colleges, some of which are already making staffing cuts to generate the revenue needed, this also returns some of the control to the schools that the initial NIL ruling took away. During the past few years, third parties, boosters or collective groups got together and arranged NIL deals for student athletes. What that has evolved into is sometimes problematic pay-for-play structures across the college sports landscape.
Now, schools will be permitted to help set up NIL deals for their student-athletes. In some cases, third-party NIL deals may become limited because schools will be able to pay student-athletes directly. Compensation packages for football and men’s basketball players at major schools could be in the six or seven figures, depending on the value placed on the player.
But both Del Conte and Nunez say it’s too early to predict how the money will break down.
“I have not officially laid out what each sport is going to perfectly have, because there is still new information that keeps popping up,” Nunez said. “I think the one thing from my perspective is that it’s not going to be much different than what you’ve seen at many schools in terms of percentage-wise what goes to football, what goes to basketball. Football and basketball will have the majority of the share, but we are also looking at what other sports we want to make sure we invest in as part of this revenue sharing.”
Del Conte agrees, but acknowledges there will be different pay structures for different athletes and different sports. Del Conte likens it to having children: You treat them fairly but maybe not always equally, offering that daughters usually have their fathers wrapped around their fingers.
“There are always going to be differences, but we are just getting into that,” Del Conte said. “I couldn’t tell you that.”
The reality, however, is that money will be a game changer. Once unimaginable, 18-and 19-year-olds will be trying to balance their sport, education, and life-changing money at once. With that can come distractions.
UH men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson says it’s not something he is concerned about, but he also has said he now sets up Zoom calls with the student-athletes and their parents to discuss how to handle the sudden influx of money.
“It doesn’t change me. I haven’t seen a change in any of that stuff,” Sampson said. “Those issues are not a concern here. Period.”
Administrators know better. Nunez said he has taken extra measures to help student athletes manage money and make good financial decisions. He has enlisted graduates and university supporters to talk to the student athletes about finances.
“I have too many donors and donors of this university, not just athletics, who are CEO and Fortune 500 companies that their bandwidth is financial wealth,” Nunez said. “So why not ask them if they can come speak to our kids?
“Every time we ask someone to come speak to our kids, it’s almost like Christmas to them. They want to give back just as much.”
Nunez also plans to make taking classes or attending financial awareness seminars mandatory for student athletes.
“I’m a proponent of putting our student-athletes in a position where they can grow and take learning classes that can help them,” he said. “I also understand that not every school has that availability. But I want to make sure that we do our part and put our student athletes …. As part of the responsibilities of being a student-athlete to be able to receive any funding, they will have to participate in these events, these mentoring sessions, and listen to speakers come in.
“It will be an attendance requirement because that is what is going to help them so that we can at least say we did our part.”
