The judge approved the NCAA settlement, of which major portions are that the NCAA (really its schools) pay $2.8B over ten years to athletes over the prior ten years and can "opt in" to paying athletes going forward (with a cap, per school of ~$20M).
Two questions regarding Valpo:
1. Valpo will ultimately get hit for a portion of the $2.8B since, if I read this correctly, each of the five major football conferences pay $300M over ten years and the remainder is from the other conferences. So, hypothetically, if the remaining $1.3B is spread out evenly across the other 25 conferences and then spread evenly across the MVC, Valpo would be on the hook for roughly $4.3M over ten years. My understanding from the articles is much of the "payment" will come from reduced revenues from things like March Madness. How badly will an estimated budget hit of $430K per year hurt Valpo athletics?
2. Will Valpo opt-in to pay athletes going forward? My guess is that they will not, as doing so creates other issues like roster limits in all sports (Valpo would definitely not want roster limits in football). Further, they would still be able to compensate indirectly using NIL (though that will likely be very small). Any alternative thoughts on this?
At some point I'm going to understand this whole thing at which point maybe I can offer an opinion but right now, I have no idea what the deal is.
As part of the payment agreement, mid-major conferences, especially one-bid leagues, will lose a disproportionate share of NCAA distributions, particularly critical income for their programs. Smaller schools will also be unable to compete in direct revenue payments to athletes, creating a more exaggerated disparity than that already existing. Limited by smaller revenues, mid-majors likely will further find difficulty competing for recruits.
Additionally, the settlement replaces scholarship limits with roster caps, and some mid-majors will lack funding for larger rosters—especially harming sports like baseball, which was limited to 11.7 scholarships and now could have rosters as large as 34 players, all of whom could receive payments. Further, this settlement does not mention Title IX, which requires equitable treatment of male and female athletes. With about 90% of back-pay going to football and men's basketball, law suits can be expected. Plus, going forward direct payments to athletes will be scrutinized for following Title IX and challenged. Moreover, future compliance with Title IX could create a greater gap since mid-major funds would be disproportionally diluted.
The settlement officially ends any pretense of amateur status, as though anybody had a doubt, as well as the traditional student-athlete label. Mid-major colleges and smaller conferences will become casualties in professionalized college sports.
Since the announcement I've researched into the settlement. Here is what I could surmise
NIL
NIL is not going away, but will be subject to more intense regulatory practices. The NCAA will now only be on the hook for concerns regarding eligibility and student conduct. The Power Conferences will be allowed to create rules for the following
- limits to booster and collective payouts
- influence of boosters
- Vetting of the above in addition to any NIL deal exceeding 600 dollars.
- Enforcement of stakeholder relationships
All cases go through Deloitte and their NIL GO service. Bryan Seeley was named the Commissioner of the College Sports Commission, who is taking all these powers from the NCAA. In my eyes, the commission and the NCAA will continue to butt heads until the commission packs up and is used as a launching pad for conferences to leave the NCAA and play under the CSC banner. The enforcement of stakeholder relationships is certainly something to look into. I assume a lot of schools are going to go the route of Kentucky and reorg their athletic depts into LLCs.
Damage Payments
See above. THere is no more information regarding how this is is going to work(and they better find out quicky)
If we want an estimate as to how much money could be lost. Id say a rough estimate is take of 1 million for the 2 million pay out given for tourney units. As for individual athletic departments and how they have to pay. Not many sources delve into this aspect. Instead choosing to focus on the NIL side and the CSC side.
Unanswered Questions
Are Student Athletes employees? This was not on the house settlement case docket. I believe we will see this challenged when schools inevitably try to make athletes sign contracts with buyout limitations in the near future. Maybe even as near as this season post July 1st. Mid major schools will need contracts with buyouts to become the standard to even survive in the modern landscape. That much is certain
How Long can a student athlete play? Horrible that this is even being discussed, but nevertheless.
Title IX? Refer to pal for that one...he beat me to it
Transfer restrictions? The NCAA and power schools are looking to reign in the transfer portal, and wish to do so by being granted antitrust exemptions to create caps on individual player pay and transfer limits. They want the feds to sort this out for them however so don't expect it anytime soon.
The Valpo of it all
How does this work for Valpo? Well that's still uncertain. It's uncertain how the payment is going to shake out. It's uncertain how the MVC is going to handle it. What I do know is the MVCs current position is to figure it out yourself for opt in. Which some schools have done. I don't see a whole lot of small private schools opting in until later though.
It's either advocate for contracts, advocate for transfer limits, or sell out and reorg into an LLC where fans and boosters can buy stock in the teams. Which is also very uncertain how that is going to work out for the Wildcats
