Since 2021, we’ve seen things take place in college athletics that we never thought we would see.
Student-athletes are now allowed to transfer from school to school, essentially selling themselves to the highest-bidding school whose boosters and supporters have the most name, image and likeness, aka NIL money to offer. But recently, the most sweeping change in big-time college sports came when a federal judge approved a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement, allowing schools to pay their players directly.
“Despite some compromises, the settlement agreement nevertheless will result in extraordinary relief for members of the settlement classes,” U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken wrote in the settlement order.
Goodbye amateurism.
It’s not a sad goodbye. It’s a welcome goodbye.
Giving students a piece of the pie that they brought all of the ingredients and baked themselves should have been happening a long time ago. The minute conferences like the SEC and Big Ten signed billion-dollar television rights deals with the likes of ESPN, Fox and CBS, major college football and basketball players should have been given their cut.
Instead, the players were told that their scholarships, which didn’t always add up to the actual cost of attendance, were all they deserved. Meanwhile, college football and basketball coaches like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, John Calipari, Dabo Swinney and Bill Self signed multimillion-dollar deals, and athletic departments became bloated all on the backs of these young men, most of them Black men.
Now, a federal judge has ruled that college athletes no longer have to sit on the sidelines and settle for scraps. With each of the major schools now on the hook to set aside a pot with up to $20.5 million to be divvied up between all of the players in the athletic department, we are about to see a little fairness across the board starting in the fall.
The only thing that gives me pause is that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has also jumped on board, signing HB 126 into law last week, paving the way for Texas colleges to pay student athletes directly.
This has all come about because of an agreement by the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Pac-12 to settle the class action lawsuit from former athletes known as House v. NCAA. More than $2 billion of the settlement will be paid to former student-athletes who never got the chance to legally benefit from using their name, image and likeness.
Everybody wins. The former and the current players.
The schools will take a hit trying to come up with the money they will now have to share with the student athletes. We’ve already heard about schools like Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Indiana and Kansas having to jettison some staff in preparation for having to pay up. We could see a reduction in collegiate sports offered at some point.
“We are further restructuring and streamlining our staff functions so we can strategically reinvest in priority areas that strengthen the rest of our department and support all of our sports,” Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione wrote last month. “Regrettably, this action requires a limited reduction in force. This difficult decision was made with great consideration, understanding it impacts our colleagues and their families. I want you to know that I am adjusting my compensation to reflect these realities as well.”
Suffice it to say, this isn’t over yet. There is still so much to figure out.
The major conference schools must make this pot of money available, but who gets what, and how much, remains to be worked out. In all likelihood, football and men’s basketball players will get the biggest share because networks are paying billions to televise their sports and the College Football Playoffs and Men’s NCAA Tournament also bring in billions.
So expect most scholarship players in those two sports to command six-figure deals from their schools, with high-profile quarterbacks able to demand more. The athletes from the non-revenue-generating sports will get something, but not quite on the level of football and men’s basketball players.
It should be noted that while the major conference schools have opted in, the mid-major FBS schools have opted out of paying the settlement money, which will further define the line between haves and have-nots.
Once the major conference schools agreed to settle with past student-athletes, college athletics would always be transformed.
“Yes, this all means change, and change at this scale is never easy. This is new terrain for everyone,” wrote NCAA President Charlie Baker. “Given the defendant conferences’ new ownership of complicated pieces of rulemaking and enforcement, there will be a transition period and certainly bumps in the road. Opportunities to drive transformative change don’t come often to organizations like ours.
“It’s important we make the most of this one. We have accomplished a lot over the last several months, from new health and wellness and academic requirements to a stronger financial footing. Together, we can use this new beginning to launch college sports into the future, too.”
