Latest news with #PowerFive
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
College Sports Commission Gives off Nonprofit Web Impression
What's in a (domain) name? Within an hour of Judge Claudia Wilken having granted final approval of the House v. NCAA settlement, the newly established College Sports Commission's website went live, featuring a homepage headline declaring 'a new day in college sports' beside a picture of female water polo players. Advertisement More from The commission, which was established by the NCAA's Power Five conferences—the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, and Pac-12—to police college athlete NIL transactions, registered as a Delaware limited liability company back in April, as Sportico was first to report. This sets the College Sports Commission (CSC) apart from the numerous nationally recognized 'commissions,' many of which are government agencies—such as the FEC, FTC, FCC and the other SEC—or federally recognized nonprofit organizations exempt from income tax. Aside from a small number of postseason football bowl games, the CSC is also unique in being the only for-profit governing body, association or multi-school organization in college sports. That means unlike the NCAA, its member intuitions and major conferences—all of which are federally registered 501(c)(3) organizations—the commission is not legally bound to operate for exclusively charitable purposes; does not have to publicly disclose its annual tax return (that includes financial details such as its annual legal expenditures or the compensation of its new CEO, Bryan Seeley); and faces no restrictions on its involvement in political campaigns. Advertisement However, the CSC's website lends a different impression, starting with its URL: Although any entity can register or use dot-org domain extensions, they typically and historically are associated with nonprofits. Notably, if paradoxically, all but one of the P5 conferences ( now employ dot-com domains for their official sites ( and even though each of the leagues are 501(c)(3) charities. In an email, a commission spokesperson told Sportico that despite its legal structure, it is 'not intended to be a for-profit company.' The CSC obtained its website's URL on April 2—a week-and-a-half before its Delaware LLC was formed. Simultaneously, as confirmed by the spokesperson, it also obtained a dot-com version. Nevertheless, is currently a parked domain that does not redirect to the active, dot-org site. On its FAQ page, the CSC describes itself as 'the organization overseeing the new system that allows schools to share revenue directly with student-athletes and ensures that NIL deals made with student-athletes are fair and comply with the rules.' While it distinguishes itself from the NCAA, the current version of the site offers little clarity about who controls the commission or how it is structured. Notably, its official legal name—College Sports Commission LLC—does not appear anywhere on the site, including in the 'Terms of Service' or 'Privacy Policy.' Advertisement Meanwhile, the website for the NIL Go system, managed by Deloitte, uses a dot-com domain name. According to the CSC spokesperson, the domain was initially purchased by Deloitte on behalf of the joint NCAA/P5 settlement implementation committee, and is now in the process of transferring ownership to the commission. Meanwhile, the dot-com website for the College Athlete Payments (CAP) platform, developed by LBi Software and 'overseen' by the commission, is owned by LBi. Best of Sign up for Sportico's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Congress introduces bill addressing national guidelines for college sports
With the settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences having received final approval from a federal district judge on June 6, members of the U.S. House of Representatives have moved into action with new legislative proposals regarding national rules for college sports. On Wednesday, June 10, Reps. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., introduced a bill that comes shortly after Reps. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., circulated a discussion draft of a bill that would largely put into federal law the terms and new rules-making structure of the settlement. Advertisement The discussion draft is set to be the centerpiece of a hearing June 11 by a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Bilirakis, who has been involved in previous college-sports bill efforts, chairs the subcommittee. Guthrie chairs the full committee. The bill – in addition to being a bi-partisan presentation – continues recent work related to college sports from McClain, who is the current House Republican Conference chair. That makes her the GOP's No. 4-ranking member in the House. In April, McClain introduced a bill that would prevent college athletes from being employees of their schools, conferences or an athletic association. The discussion draft – as posted on Congress' general resource site, - includes language that specifically would allow the NCAA, and potentially the new Collegiate Sports Commission, to make rules in areas that have come into legal dispute in recent years and in areas that the NCAA wants to shield from legal dispute. The discussion draft, first reported on by The Washington Post, also includes language that would require most Division I schools to provide a series of benefits for athletes that are currently called for under NCAA and some conferences' rules but do not have the force of federal law. Advertisement In addition, the discussion draft includes a 'placeholder' section for language that likely would be connected to providing antitrust or other legal protection for various provisions. According the discussion draft, an 'interstate collegiate athletic association' would be able to 'establish and enforce rules relating to … the manner in which … student athletes may be recruited' to play sports; 'the transfer of a student athlete between institutions'; and 'the number of seasons or length of time for which a student athlete is eligible to compete, academic standards, and code of conduct'. The NCAA's rules regarding when recruits can be offered money in exchange for the use of their name, image and likeness; athletes' ability to freely transfer; and the number of seasons in which they are eligible to compete all of have been – or currently are being – addressed in federal and state courts across the country. That has raised concerns for NCAA officials about the future of rules such as those concerning academic eligibility requirements The discussion draft also includes language that would require most Division I schools to provide a series of benefits for athletes that are currently called for under NCAA and some conferences' rules but do not have the force of law. Advertisement These include medical coverage for athletically related injuries for at least two years after the conclusion of an athlete's career; guaranteed financial aid that would allow an athlete to complete an undergraduate degree; and 'an administrative structure that provides independent medical care and affirms the unchallengeable autonomous authority of primary athletics health care providers (team physicians and athletic trainers) to determine medical management and return-to-play decisions related to student athletes.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Congress introduces college sports bill proposing national rules
Miami Herald
10-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
SMU Football Preview 2025: The Mustangs Are Built To Do It Again
Well that last season, SMU hadn't won a regular season game against a Power Five-now-Power-Four program against anyone by TCU since an all-time bet-on-yourself move, SMU became a part of the ACC, but without taking a dime of TV revenue until 2032. It was looking to raise the school's profile with a long-term plan, and it helped get the alumni fired up and ready to write and Cal were the higher-profile gets for the ACC, SMU was expected to be a nice scrimmage for the established programs, and then ... probably didn't belong in the expanded College Football Playoff - technically, a case could've been made for BYU instead with an 18-15 win over the Mustangs in Dallas - but let's start with this. If last year at this exact time, you were told SMU would be in the CFP discussion ... X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN2025 SMU PreviewSMU Offense BreakdownSMU Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to SeasonSMU almost pulled off a thriller of a comeback in a 34-31 loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship, and it got its shot. In the ten years of the College Football Playoff, no two-loss Power Five/Four program would've been left out of an expanded 12-team model - it had to be done. SMU had to be what that the Mustangs were outplayed and outclassed in a blowout loss at Penn State. They made it. Everything the school could've dreamed of came true. SMU made the (bleep)ing College Football Playoff. Texas A&M hasn't done that. Neither has Baylor, Texas Tech, or Houston. Take it outside of the football-mad state - Wisconsin, Florida, Ole Miss, Auburn, Missouri, USC, Utah, and Iowa have yet to make the last year, Penn State and Tennessee hadn't been in, it wasn't a fluke. Okay, so the ACC was fourth among the Power Four conferences by about a gajillion miles. SMU hung up 66 on TCU, walloped Florida State 42-16, took out a good Louisville squad, and in all, beat six teams that went bowling, and again, almost took out Clemson. All head coach Rhett Lashlee has done is go 22-6 over the last two seasons and 29-12 since taking the job in recruiting class was terrific, the staff kept around everyone important, crushed the transfer portal for key positions, the depth is better, and the starting 22 will be more talented than last year's schedule is tougher - Florida State will likely rebound, Miami is on the slate this time around, and good luck with those road trips to TCU and Clemson - and the team will be the hunted, but after last year, you're insane to think SMU can't do it all again. SMU Offense BreakdownSMU Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Indianapolis Star
07-06-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
What does the NCAA settlement mean for college sports? We answer the burning questions
After nearly five years of litigation, a federal judge on the night of Friday, June 6 granted final approval to a settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences that is now set to fundamentally change college sports. Unless altered on appeal, the arrangement will allow — though not require — schools to directly pay their athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness (don't call it pay for play), subject to an annual cap based on a percentage of a defined set of Power Five athletics department revenues. These payments could begin July 1. Current and former athletes, over a 10-year period, will receive shares of $2.8 billion in damages (as will the lawyers who represented them). For schools that opt in to paying their athletes, the NCAA's current system of sport-by-sport athletic scholarship limits will be scrapped in favor of sport-by-sport roster limits. However, after U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken initially refused to approve the settlement because implementation of the limits starting with the 2025-26 school year would have resulted in thousands of athletes losing their spots on Division I teams, the deal was revised in a fashion that effectively could delay full implementation of the limits for several years. The elimination of the scholarship limit will result in new athletic scholarships being awarded. In addition, while athletes will continue to be allowed to make name, image and likeness deals with entities other than their schools, there will be an effort by the power conferences (not the NCAA) to bring greater scrutiny to those arrangements, under the direction of a new entity called the College Sports Commission. Regardless of whether their school opts in to making NIL payments, any Division I athlete who has a deal, or deals, worth $600 or more will have to report those deals to (get ready for the new college-sports jargon) to system called "NIL Go." That data will then by be evaluated to determine whether the deal has a 'valid business purpose' and is within 'a reasonable range of compensation,' whatever those terms are deemed to mean. Again, the Commission will not be operated by the NCAA, but rather by the conferences, and the Commission will be charged with investigating alleged malfeasance, enforcing rules and penalizing rule-breakers. That means there's a lot left to be sorted out, and that's without considering myriad other tangential, or unrelated, to the settlement. This marks "the formal beginning of the greatest transformation in college sports history, period," Gabe Feldman, director of the Tulane Sports Law Program and Tulane University's associate provost for NCAA compliance, told USA TODAY Sports before the settlement was announced. "But I think the key, even after approval of the settlement, is that the changes in college sports are just starting. The settlement will likely trigger a series of additional changes, legal challenges and efforts to get Congressional intervention. This is not the end of a chapter -- or, if it's the end of a chapter, a new chapter will be beginning soon after. … "I think there are as many unanswered questions — and probably more unanswered questions — than answered questions that will come from the settlement.' Wilken's final-approval ruling can be taken to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It is not certain whether it will be appealed, but objecting parties have 30 days to decide. The contentiousness surrounding the roster limits could result in one or more of the objectors who were focused on that issue not only appealing, but also seeking a stay that would delay implementation of the entire settlement. Such objectors would need the stay because, as the settlement was approved by Wilken, if there is an appeal, all of the forward-looking actions, including schools being able to pay athletes and roster limits for the 2025-26 academic season, are set to be allowed to proceed, even pending the appeal. The NCAA and the conferences would begin making damages payments, but the money would be held in escrow — not paid to athletes or lawyers — until appeals are completed. And other appeals could come from objectors who raised issues, including whether the settlement violates Title IX for reasons including the disproportionate allocation of damages among men's and women's athletes; the legality of one limit on pay to athletes being replaced by another one; and whether the rights of future college athletes are being unfairly handled. A final determination of what the per-school cap will be for the 2025-26 cycle has not yet been made. The NCAA, in a document summarizing rules changes approved on April 21 by the Division I Board of Directors but contingent on settlement approval, said the cap is estimated to be $20.5 million. However, in a written declaration filed with the court on March 3 in support of final approval, plaintiffs' economics expert Dan Rascher projected that the cap would be $23.1 million. According to the settlement documents, the Power Five schools' financial data that forms the basis for the cap generally must be provided to the plaintiffs' lawyers by May 15 of each year. The plaintiffs have the right to 'reasonably audit such data." The cap is set to increase annually by 4%, except in Years 4, 7 and 10, when new baselines would be established based on the defined set of Power Five athletics department revenues. However, under certain circumstances connected to the timing and value of media rights contracts, the plaintiffs' lawyers have two options during the 10-year settlement period to have new baselines set more quickly. One hook to all of this is that the amount of money that schools can pay to their athletes for use of the NIL will be reduced by the value of new, or incremental, athletic scholarships they award above the number of scholarships currently allowed in a given sport, up to a maximum of $2.5 million. In an example from the settlement documents, a school currently offering 9 baseball scholarships, versus the 11.7 permitted by NCAA rules, that decides to offer 15 baseball scholarships will have added an incremental total of 3.3. So, if the initial cap is $20.5 million and a school awards $2.8 million in new scholarships, it could only make $18 million in NIL payments to athletes. This math has no impact on the NIL deals that athletes make with non-school entities, as long as those deals are approved under the Commission process. There are several aspects to this. According to the principals, one of the justifications for roster limits was the lifting of the scholarship limits. But while some schools have said they will be adding scholarships — Texas and Ohio State, for example — this is not a requirement for schools. Southeastern Conference schools, at least for now, have agreed to not add to the current 85 football scholarships, a conference spokesman said at the conference's recent spring meetings. On the flip side, there could be current walk-ons who lose spots. The NCAA and the settlement say that athletes who are on scholarship and lose their roster spots must have their scholarships honored. Under the settlement, schools would have the option to exempt from the limits any athlete who was on a roster in 2024-25 and who has been or would have been removed for 2025-26 because of the limits for the remainder of their college careers. It also would let schools similarly accommodate any high school senior who was "recruited to be, or was assured they would be" on a Division I school's roster for the 2025-26 school year. These athletes are to be identified by the schools as "Designated Student-Athletes." However, this did not remove the roster limits from the settlement. And this did not require schools to keep all of their current athletes on their rosters — or to exceed the roster limits at any point. It just gave them the option to do so if they carried a "Designated Student-Athlete." The impact of roster limits could be felt in many sports, although NCAA officials have said NCAA governing groups are still working through a variety of details, including preseason practice squad sizes and how a team might be able to replace an injured player. In football, for instance, the roster limit will be 105. Walk-ons have been a huge part of the football culture at a number of schools. According to their respective fiscal-year 2024 financial reports to the NCAA, Nebraska had 180 football players, Texas A&M 143. Meanwhile, as USA TODAY reported in May 2022 in one of a series of stories marking the 50th anniversary-of-Title-IX series, there are schools that have been using large roster counts in some women's sport to address athletic-opportunity requirements connected to Title IX, the federal gender equity law. Wisconsin had 151 women's rowers, according to its FY24 NCAA financial report. The women's rowing roster limit under the settlement is 68. Georgia and Texas Tech among other schools, have said they plan to allocate large percentages of the money they pay to athletes to football players and men's basketball players. Because this money will be coming from the schools, rather than third parties, this seems all but certain at some point to result in a Title IX lawsuit. As objectors have noted in their legal arguments, Title IX states, in part that no person "shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.' An array of objectors to the settlement, and their attorneys, vehemently raised Title IX issues about how the damages money is overwhelmingly set to go to football and men's basketball players. Among their arguments was that such an arrangement would lead schools to have an extremely disproportionate payment structure going forward. The counter to this argument is that, in general, football and men's basketball players have greater market value than women's athletes, and that head coaches in football and men's basketball, generally, are paid much more than coaches of women's teams. The counter to this counter, as one set of objectors argued, is that by historically "failing to invest in women's sports, the NCAA depressed the value of women's NILs relative to their male counterparts. The parties know this." While overruling Title IX-related objections to the settlement, Wilken wrote: "To the extent that schools violate Title IX when providing benefits and compensation to student-athletes … (athletes) will have the right to file lawsuits arising out of those violations." The Biden Administration in January issued guidance saying NIL payments from schools were subject to Title IX scrutiny. The Trump Administration has rescinded that guidance. While NCAA governance groups have set up changes to the association's rules to accommodate the settlement, the NCAA's central-office investigative and enforcement staffs are not going to be involved in the day-to-day oversight and operation of rules and procedures created by the settlement. That work is being left to the power conferences and the new College Sports Commission, which will handle: ▶Rules-making. ▶Managing the NIL Go system, an electronic system that athletes will be required to use to report the details of their NIL deals with entities other than their schools. ▶Figuring out how to determine the legitimacy of those deals, and how to deal with appeals by athletes, who — under the settlement — can seek arbitration if they want to challenge a determination that a deal is not legitimate relative to having a 'valid business purpose' and being within 'a reasonable range of compensation.' ▶Forming a new regulatory and enforcement entity that will be led newly named chief executive officer Bryan Seeley. According to the announcement of his hiring on June 6, Seeley "will build out the organization's investigative and enforcement teams and oversee all of its ongoing operations and stakeholder relationships. … Seeley and his team will also be responsible for enforcement of the new rules around revenue sharing, student-athlete third-party name image and likeness (NIL) deals, and roster limits. The Commission will investigate potential rules violations, make factual determinations, issue penalties where appropriate, and participate in the neutral arbitration process set forth in the settlement as necessary." Attendant to all of this will be training school administrators in all of the new procedures and systems. In addition, Seeley faces the more intangible task of attempting to create buy-in and a culture of compliance among schools, administrators and coaches who are always looking for an edge on their competitors, and, in recent years, have become increasingly hostile toward investigations and enforcement from the NCAA, at least. While there will be a cap on schools' total pay to athletes, the athletes' ability to have deals with other entities still leaves plenty of room for inequities, perceived or otherwise. They will be anything except 'employment' agreements. (The issue of athletes as school employees remains pending before a federal district court in Pennsylvania, where the NCAA and schools are arguing for dismissal, and for consideration from Congress, where Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, continues to pursue a comprehensive college-sports bill.) In general, they will grant the schools wide-ranging use of athletes' NIL and place some significant limitations on the athletes. This is based on a court filing by an entity that was seeking to submit a friend-of-the-court (or, a amicus) brief — a commentary on the case by an interested third party. The filing, in late March, came from lawyers for Inc., an organization that described itself in the filing as an entity that 'exists to educate, organize and represent college athletes as their chosen players association to ensure that their interests are protected as college athletics continues to evolve.' Supporting exhibits that included documents described as templates of NIL agreements written by the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences and from the universities of Arizona, Kansas and Minnesota. In response to an open-records request from USA TODAY Sports after the filing, Minnesota provided the current version of its template 'Memorandum of Understanding.' Among its provisions, in an 'Annex' to the MOU, it says the athlete 'grants the Institution the right to use and sublicense Athlete's NIL to promote the Institution, the Conference, and/or the NCAA and/or such entities' respective third party partners, sponsors, affiliates and sublicensees in any way …'' In a provision that has taken on greater significance in the wake of Nico Iamaleava's transfer from Tennessee to UCLA, the document attributed to Arizona includes as 'optional' language the terms for a buyout that could be required of an athlete — or their subsequent school, on their behalf — if they transfers during the term of the agreement. Arizona did not respond to an inquiry in late March about this document. All kinds of strategies are being pursued. Tennessee said it will be charging its football-ticket customers a 'talent fee.' Virginia Tech is set to raise its student athletic fee for the 2025-26 school year by nearly $300. (It also hosted a concert in May by Metallica, whose song, 'Enter Sandman,' long has been the Hokies' pre-football-game entry soundtrack). Minnesota is seeking a potential naming rights deal for its venerable basketball arena, currently known as Williams Arena. Virginia and other schools are re-visiting donation levels that will be required for season-ticket purchasing rights. Oklahoma's athletics department has said it is laying off 5% of its full-time employees. Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin recently told longtime journalist Pat Dooley's "Another Dooley Noted Podcast" that he asked all Gators coaches to cut their budgets by 5%. Meanwhile, schools from power conferences also will be counting on conference revenue shares increasing even as the conferences and the NCAA pay the settlement damages over time and the SEC also repays the $350 million it borrowed and distributed to members in 2021 to help them through the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several hundred athletes who have opted out of the settlement and some, at present, are pursuing separate damages claims, though not all under the same lawsuit. This may not turn out to be a class action, but there are some recognizable names making cases that they individually are owed money. Among them: Men's basketball players: Kris Jenkins, Frank Mason III, Franz Wagner, Moritz Wagner, Hunter Dickinson, Duncan Robinson, Jamal Shead, Jaime Jaquez. Football players: Jake Browning, Cam Rising, Alex Hornibrook, Dax Milne, Drew Lock, Bryce Love, Cade McNamara, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Jake Fromm, Nakobe Dean, Will Levis, Trace McSorley. Women's basketball players: Kathleen Doyle, Kathryn Westbeld, Sophie Cunningham.
USA Today
07-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
What does the NCAA settlement mean for college sports? We answer the burning questions
What does the NCAA settlement mean for college sports? We answer the burning questions A settlement allowing revenue sharing with NCAA athletes will transform college sports. How will this new system work? We break down what it all means. Show Caption Hide Caption Latest on NCAA settlement that would allow revenue sharing for college athletes USA TODAY Sports' Steve Berkowitz discusses the latest on judge's refusal to approve NCAA settlement that would allow revenue sharing for college athletes Sports Pulse After nearly five years of litigation, a federal judge on the night of Friday, June 6 granted final approval to a settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences that is now set to fundamentally change college sports. Unless altered on appeal, the arrangement will allow — though not require — schools to directly pay their athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness (don't call it pay for play), subject to an annual cap based on a percentage of a defined set of Power Five athletics department revenues. These payments could begin July 1. Current and former athletes, over a 10-year period, will receive shares of $2.8 billion in damages (as will the lawyers who represented them). For schools that opt in to paying their athletes, the NCAA's current system of sport-by-sport athletic scholarship limits will be scrapped in favor of sport-by-sport roster limits. However, after U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken initially refused to approve the settlement because implementation of the limits starting with the 2025-26 school year would have resulted in thousands of athletes losing their spots on Division I teams, the deal was revised in a fashion that effectively could delay full implementation of the limits for several years. The elimination of the scholarship limit will result in new athletic scholarships being awarded. In addition, while athletes will continue to be allowed to make name, image and likeness deals with entities other than their schools, there will be an effort by the power conferences (not the NCAA) to bring greater scrutiny to those arrangements, under the direction of a new entity called the College Sports Commission. Regardless of whether their school opts in to making NIL payments, any Division I athlete who has a deal, or deals, worth $600 or more will have to report those deals to (get ready for the new college-sports jargon) to system called "NIL Go." That data will then by be evaluated to determine whether the deal has a 'valid business purpose' and is within 'a reasonable range of compensation,' whatever those terms are deemed to mean. Again, the Commission will not be operated by the NCAA, but rather by the conferences, and the Commission will be charged with investigating alleged malfeasance, enforcing rules and penalizing rule-breakers. That means there's a lot left to be sorted out, and that's without considering myriad other tangential, or unrelated, to the settlement. This marks "the formal beginning of the greatest transformation in college sports history, period," Gabe Feldman, director of the Tulane Sports Law Program and Tulane University's associate provost for NCAA compliance, told USA TODAY Sports before the settlement was announced. "But I think the key, even after approval of the settlement, is that the changes in college sports are just starting. The settlement will likely trigger a series of additional changes, legal challenges and efforts to get Congressional intervention. This is not the end of a chapter -- or, if it's the end of a chapter, a new chapter will be beginning soon after. … "I think there are as many unanswered questions — and probably more unanswered questions — than answered questions that will come from the settlement.' Can the House settlement be appealed? Wilken's final-approval ruling can be taken to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It is not certain whether it will be appealed, but objecting parties have 30 days to decide. The contentiousness surrounding the roster limits could result in one or more of the objectors who were focused on that issue not only appealing, but also seeking a stay that would delay implementation of the entire settlement. Such objectors would need the stay because, as the settlement was approved by Wilken, if there is an appeal, all of the forward-looking actions, including schools being able to pay athletes and roster limits for the 2025-26 academic season, are set to be allowed to proceed, even pending the appeal. The NCAA and the conferences would begin making damages payments, but the money would be held in escrow — not paid to athletes or lawyers — until appeals are completed. And other appeals could come from objectors who raised issues, including whether the settlement violates Title IX for reasons including the disproportionate allocation of damages among men's and women's athletes; the legality of one limit on pay to athletes being replaced by another one; and whether the rights of future college athletes are being unfairly handled. What will be pay cap for schools paying players for NIL? A final determination of what the per-school cap will be for the 2025-26 cycle has not yet been made. The NCAA, in a document summarizing rules changes approved on April 21 by the Division I Board of Directors but contingent on settlement approval, said the cap is estimated to be $20.5 million. However, in a written declaration filed with the court on March 3 in support of final approval, plaintiffs' economics expert Dan Rascher projected that the cap would be $23.1 million. According to the settlement documents, the Power Five schools' financial data that forms the basis for the cap generally must be provided to the plaintiffs' lawyers by May 15 of each year. The plaintiffs have the right to 'reasonably audit such data." The cap is set to increase annually by 4%, except in Years 4, 7 and 10, when new baselines would be established based on the defined set of Power Five athletics department revenues. However, under certain circumstances connected to the timing and value of media rights contracts, the plaintiffs' lawyers have two options during the 10-year settlement period to have new baselines set more quickly. One hook to all of this is that the amount of money that schools can pay to their athletes for use of the NIL will be reduced by the value of new, or incremental, athletic scholarships they award above the number of scholarships currently allowed in a given sport, up to a maximum of $2.5 million. In an example from the settlement documents, a school currently offering 9 baseball scholarships, versus the 11.7 permitted by NCAA rules, that decides to offer 15 baseball scholarships will have added an incremental total of 3.3. So, if the initial cap is $20.5 million and a school awards $2.8 million in new scholarships, it could only make $18 million in NIL payments to athletes. This math has no impact on the NIL deals that athletes make with non-school entities, as long as those deals are approved under the Commission process. What are the scholarship and roster limits? There are several aspects to this. According to the principals, one of the justifications for roster limits was the lifting of the scholarship limits. But while some schools have said they will be adding scholarships — Texas and Ohio State, for example — this is not a requirement for schools. Southeastern Conference schools, at least for now, have agreed to not add to the current 85 football scholarships, a conference spokesman said at the conference's recent spring meetings. On the flip side, there could be current walk-ons who lose spots. The NCAA and the settlement say that athletes who are on scholarship and lose their roster spots must have their scholarships honored. Under the settlement, schools would have the option to exempt from the limits any athlete who was on a roster in 2024-25 and who has been or would have been removed for 2025-26 because of the limits for the remainder of their college careers. It also would let schools similarly accommodate any high school senior who was "recruited to be, or was assured they would be" on a Division I school's roster for the 2025-26 school year. These athletes are to be identified by the schools as "Designated Student-Athletes." However, this did not remove the roster limits from the settlement. And this did not require schools to keep all of their current athletes on their rosters — or to exceed the roster limits at any point. It just gave them the option to do so if they carried a "Designated Student-Athlete." The impact of roster limits could be felt in many sports, although NCAA officials have said NCAA governing groups are still working through a variety of details, including preseason practice squad sizes and how a team might be able to replace an injured player. In football, for instance, the roster limit will be 105. Walk-ons have been a huge part of the football culture at a number of schools. According to their respective fiscal-year 2024 financial reports to the NCAA, Nebraska had 180 football players, Texas A&M 143. Meanwhile, as USA TODAY reported in May 2022 in one of a series of stories marking the 50th anniversary-of-Title-IX series, there are schools that have been using large roster counts in some women's sport to address athletic-opportunity requirements connected to Title IX, the federal gender equity law. Wisconsin had 151 women's rowers, according to its FY24 NCAA financial report. The women's rowing roster limit under the settlement is 68. How will Title IX impact payments to men's and women's sports? Georgia and Texas Tech among other schools, have said they plan to allocate large percentages of the money they pay to athletes to football players and men's basketball players. Because this money will be coming from the schools, rather than third parties, this seems all but certain at some point to result in a Title IX lawsuit. As objectors have noted in their legal arguments, Title IX states, in part that no person "shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.' An array of objectors to the settlement, and their attorneys, vehemently raised Title IX issues about how the damages money is overwhelmingly set to go to football and men's basketball players. Among their arguments was that such an arrangement would lead schools to have an extremely disproportionate payment structure going forward. The counter to this argument is that, in general, football and men's basketball players have greater market value than women's athletes, and that head coaches in football and men's basketball, generally, are paid much more than coaches of women's teams. The counter to this counter, as one set of objectors argued, is that by historically "failing to invest in women's sports, the NCAA depressed the value of women's NILs relative to their male counterparts. The parties know this." While overruling Title IX-related objections to the settlement, Wilken wrote: "To the extent that schools violate Title IX when providing benefits and compensation to student-athletes … (athletes) will have the right to file lawsuits arising out of those violations." The Biden Administration in January issued guidance saying NIL payments from schools were subject to Title IX scrutiny. The Trump Administration has rescinded that guidance. What new procedures for college sports are being implemented? While NCAA governance groups have set up changes to the association's rules to accommodate the settlement, the NCAA's central-office investigative and enforcement staffs are not going to be involved in the day-to-day oversight and operation of rules and procedures created by the settlement. That work is being left to the power conferences and the new College Sports Commission, which will handle: ▶Rules-making. ▶Managing the NIL Go system, an electronic system that athletes will be required to use to report the details of their NIL deals with entities other than their schools. ▶Figuring out how to determine the legitimacy of those deals, and how to deal with appeals by athletes, who — under the settlement — can seek arbitration if they want to challenge a determination that a deal is not legitimate relative to having a 'valid business purpose' and being within 'a reasonable range of compensation.' ▶Forming a new regulatory and enforcement entity that will be led newly named chief executive officer Bryan Seeley. According to the announcement of his hiring on June 6, Seeley "will build out the organization's investigative and enforcement teams and oversee all of its ongoing operations and stakeholder relationships. … Seeley and his team will also be responsible for enforcement of the new rules around revenue sharing, student-athlete third-party name image and likeness (NIL) deals, and roster limits. The Commission will investigate potential rules violations, make factual determinations, issue penalties where appropriate, and participate in the neutral arbitration process set forth in the settlement as necessary." Attendant to all of this will be training school administrators in all of the new procedures and systems. In addition, Seeley faces the more intangible task of attempting to create buy-in and a culture of compliance among schools, administrators and coaches who are always looking for an edge on their competitors, and, in recent years, have become increasingly hostile toward investigations and enforcement from the NCAA, at least. While there will be a cap on schools' total pay to athletes, the athletes' ability to have deals with other entities still leaves plenty of room for inequities, perceived or otherwise. What will school NIL deals with athletes look like? They will be anything except 'employment' agreements. (The issue of athletes as school employees remains pending before a federal district court in Pennsylvania, where the NCAA and schools are arguing for dismissal, and for consideration from Congress, where Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, continues to pursue a comprehensive college-sports bill.) In general, they will grant the schools wide-ranging use of athletes' NIL and place some significant limitations on the athletes. This is based on a court filing by an entity that was seeking to submit a friend-of-the-court (or, a amicus) brief — a commentary on the case by an interested third party. The filing, in late March, came from lawyers for Inc., an organization that described itself in the filing as an entity that 'exists to educate, organize and represent college athletes as their chosen players association to ensure that their interests are protected as college athletics continues to evolve.' Supporting exhibits that included documents described as templates of NIL agreements written by the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences and from the universities of Arizona, Kansas and Minnesota. In response to an open-records request from USA TODAY Sports after the filing, Minnesota provided the current version of its template 'Memorandum of Understanding.' Among its provisions, in an 'Annex' to the MOU, it says the athlete 'grants the Institution the right to use and sublicense Athlete's NIL to promote the Institution, the Conference, and/or the NCAA and/or such entities' respective third party partners, sponsors, affiliates and sublicensees in any way …'' In a provision that has taken on greater significance in the wake of Nico Iamaleava's transfer from Tennessee to UCLA, the document attributed to Arizona includes as 'optional' language the terms for a buyout that could be required of an athlete — or their subsequent school, on their behalf — if they transfers during the term of the agreement. Arizona did not respond to an inquiry in late March about this document. How are schools paying for these deals? All kinds of strategies are being pursued. Tennessee said it will be charging its football-ticket customers a 'talent fee.' Virginia Tech is set to raise its student athletic fee for the 2025-26 school year by nearly $300. (It also hosted a concert in May by Metallica, whose song, 'Enter Sandman,' long has been the Hokies' pre-football-game entry soundtrack). Minnesota is seeking a potential naming rights deal for its venerable basketball arena, currently known as Williams Arena. Virginia and other schools are re-visiting donation levels that will be required for season-ticket purchasing rights. Oklahoma's athletics department has said it is laying off 5% of its full-time employees. Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin recently told longtime journalist Pat Dooley's "Another Dooley Noted Podcast" that he asked all Gators coaches to cut their budgets by 5%. Meanwhile, schools from power conferences also will be counting on conference revenue shares increasing even as the conferences and the NCAA pay the settlement damages over time and the SEC also repays the $350 million it borrowed and distributed to members in 2021 to help them through the COVID-19 pandemic. What about college athletes who opt out of settlement? There are several hundred athletes who have opted out of the settlement and some, at present, are pursuing separate damages claims, though not all under the same lawsuit. This may not turn out to be a class action, but there are some recognizable names making cases that they individually are owed money. Among them: Men's basketball players: Kris Jenkins, Frank Mason III, Franz Wagner, Moritz Wagner, Hunter Dickinson, Duncan Robinson, Jamal Shead, Jaime Jaquez. Football players: Jake Browning, Cam Rising, Alex Hornibrook, Dax Milne, Drew Lock, Bryce Love, Cade McNamara, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Jake Fromm, Nakobe Dean, Will Levis, Trace McSorley. Women's basketball players: Kathleen Doyle, Kathryn Westbeld, Sophie Cunningham. Baseball players: Griffin Conine, Jordan Beck, Matt McLain, Shea Langeliers.
