Group of 10 athletic directors in charge of enforcing new rules under college sports lawsuit
Ten athletic directors are taking on the biggest lift in college sports, figuring out how to enforce new rules that will come into play when terms of the landmark $2.8 billion antitrust settlement reconfiguring their industry go into effect this summer.
The NCAA and five conferences named as defendants in the House settlement on Wednesday revealed a list of the ADs on the Settlement Implementation Committee, along with the tasks they're being asked to tackle for the rollout of a new system that will go into effect July 1, assuming a federal judge approves the settlement after a hearing on April 7.
The 10 athletic directors on the committee are: Trev Alberts, Texas A&M Scott Barnes, Oregon State; Mitch Barnhart, Kentucky; J Batt, Georgia Tech; Ross Bjork, Ohio State; Pat Chun, Washington; John Cunningham, Cincinnati; Graham Neff, Clemson; Anne McCoy, Washington State; and Desiree Reed-Francois, Arizona.
Their main tasks include: Creating a digital platform for universities to report payments to athletes to make sure they comply with a cap of up to $20.5 million per school; creating a system that ensures third-party name, image and likeness (NIL) deals are legitimate — i.e., not pay-for-play, and worth 'fair market value": and creating a system to enforce the rules and deliver sanctions for schools and individuals that violate them.
The so-called 'cap management' platform will be run by LBi software, which has built similar systems for Major League Baseball and the NBA.
The audit and financial consulting firm Deloitte will run a system that evaluates NIL deals worth more than $600. Those deals, by terms of the settlement, are subject to scrutiny by this newly created enforcement body. Plaintiffs' attorneys have argued there is ample data to place a fair market value on what athletes provide to ensure they are actually being paid for services and not simply to enroll in a school.
Among the group's toughest chores will be finding appropriate sanctions for those who violate the rules.
One of the NCAA's biggest weaknesses over the decades was how long it took to investigate and eventually penalize programs and coaches who ran afoul of recruiting and academic rules. This group isn't expected to have the power to place programs on probation but will likely be able to fine programs and coaches — and also reduce the amount they're able to offer in revenue-sharing.
With the April 7 hearing for approval of the settlement nearing, dissenting voices about the sprawling settlement are growing louder.
One concern is that restricting the amount players can earn via some measure of fair market value could lead to new lawsuits arguing their earning ability is still being restricted. The NCAA and the conferences are in favor of federal legislation that would subject colleges to the same set of rules and also potentially provide the NCAA with an antitrust exemption to avoid some of those issues.
'I fear that rules meant to create stability for college athletics are being challenged every day in the courts, and this is an area in which we need your help,' Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh told a House subcommittee Tuesday in a hearing about NIL.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sen. Mike Lee, House conservatives demand changes to Trump's tax bill
WASHINGTON — Fiscal conservatives are demanding a number of changes to the Republican-led reconciliation package, including the elimination of some provisions that were key to getting the bill through Republicans' slim majority in the House last month. The House Freedom Caucus began circulating a memo Monday evening outlining dozens of changes to the tax package, which passed the House in a narrow 215-214 vote in late May. The bill is now being considered by the Senate, but House conservatives have made it clear they are not satisfied with the final product — and are demanding their colleagues in the upper chamber make edits. 'Through the negotiations in the House and the hard work of the President and the White House, we took significant steps to improve the reconciliation package known as 'One Big Beautiful Bill,'' the memo reads, according to a copy obtained by the Deseret News. 'However, there remain substantial concerns and a great deal of misinformation circulating about the bill. … Below, please find specific recommendations for the Senate to deliver a product we can pass in the House.' At the top of the list — underneath a headline that reads: 'The Senate Needs to Improve the House OBBB' — the fiscal conservatives are demanding Senate Republicans find deeper spending cuts than those included in the current resolution. The tax reconciliation package currently allows for up to $3.7 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. However, the bill includes only $1.3 trillion in spending cuts to offset those costs, raising concerns among Republicans that the package will raise the national debt. While GOP leaders, including Utah Rep. Blake Moore, argue the report doesn't factor in the economic growth that will likely come from the tax cuts tucked into the package, members of the Freedom Caucus say 'savings are backloaded and are subject to the whims of a future Congress, heavily affected by future policy changes and tax extensions, and unlikely to fully occur.' Notably, the conservatives are also demanding the Senate scale back an agreed-upon increase to federal deductions for state and local taxes paid, also known as SALT. Republican leaders offered to increase the current deduction cap to $40,000 — up from the current $10,000 limit — for individuals who make $500,000 or less a year. That cap would then increase by 1% every year over the next decade and remain permanent after that period. The policy mostly affects high-tax states, but the changes were made to appease a group of blue-state Republicans who repeatedly threatened final passage if a higher deduction was not included. Members of the House Freedom Caucus have pushed to undo that deal, arguing it 'disproportionately benefits high-income households in high tax (Democrat-run) states,' according to the memo. That's unlikely to go over well with the faction of New York Republicans who spent months negotiating a SALT increase. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who helped lead that charge, has warned for weeks that if the Senate changes the numbers, he and his fellow New York Republicans would reject the bill. 'Cool. Good luck with that,' Lawler said in a post on X shortly after the memo was released. The memo also urges Senate Republicans to 'hold the line' on certain provisions included in the House version, including language that would fully repeal green energy credits passed by the Biden administration through the Inflation Reduction Act. 'Hold the line on the House OBBB reforms to significantly strengthen the rollback of IRA subsidies for wind and solar to end during President Trump's term — otherwise they will inevitability be renewed as in the past,' the memo states, 'and, by that point, the grid will become generally unreliable with no quick fixes to inevitable widespread unaffordability and power outages.' That demand comes in response to a push by some Republicans in the Senate — including Utah Sen. John Curtis — who want to preserve some of the clean energy tax incentives in the IRA, arguing they are crucial for Trump's agenda to remain energy independent. Conservatives are similarly pushing for deeper cuts to Medicaid benefits, outlining specific changes that would 'protect the most vulnerable' while addressing 'money laundering, fraud, and abuse.' Suggested language would be to implement specific definitions to crack down on Medicaid coverage for undocumented immigrants as well as stricter work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The demands come as Senate Republicans have hinted at major changes to the House-passed reconciliation bill — with some suggesting to ease the deep spending cuts already passed while others have argued the package does not go far enough. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has been at the forefront of demanding those changes, telling the Deseret News that 'everyone understands there are going to be some modifications made to the House bill.' 'Nobody believes that the House bill, unadorned, unmodified, is going to pass,' he said. For example, Lee supports maintaining the full repeal of the IRA green energy credits as well as cracking down on illegal immigrants relying on Medicaid. Meanwhile, the president is telling the Senate to 'make the changes they want' — sending mixed messages as Republicans consider alterations to the budget framework advancing policies on the border, energy, national defense and tax reform. Some of the hard-to-convince lawmakers hope their stubbornness will ward off any of their Senate colleagues from making drastic changes, noting the drawn-out process in the House should deter them from doing so. 'I think after seeing how painful of a process this is and how difficult it is to get anything through this side, I think that will send a strong message in the Senate that you can't really change it,' Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a member of the Freedom Caucus, told the Deseret News last month. Contributing: Brigham Tomco
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
GOP lawmakers uneasy about package to codify DOGE cuts ahead of House vote this week
Multiple Republican lawmakers are voicing concerns about backing a high-profile measure later this week to codify Elon Musk's DOGE cuts – raising questions about whether it can pass the House at all. Two Republicans – Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Nicole Malliotakis of New York – separately told CNN they have concerns with the White House's push to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 'Still mulling,' Amodei said when asked if he would support the package of cuts. 'The impact on local PBS stations appears to be significant.' Other Republicans have heartburn about how it could cut the Bush-era program, PEPFAR, devoted to fighting HIV and AIDS globally. 'If it cuts PEPFAR like they're saying it is, that's not good,' GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told CNN last week. House GOP leaders plan to put the package of cuts, totaling $9.4 billion, on the floor as soon as Thursday, according to two people familiar with the plans. But Speaker Mike Johnson will need near unanimity in his conference for the package to pass the House, where he can only lose three votes. Johnson said on Monday that he's 'working on' getting enough votes for the Department of Government Efficiency spending cuts package he hopes to bring to the floor this week. 'The only concern I heard initially was some wanted a little more specificity and detail on what was in the package,' Johnson continued. Asked how he would persuade members that wanted more specificity in the package, Johnson replied, 'I'm gathering up all their questions and we'll try to get them all answered. I mean, that's what we do in every piece of legislation.' If it can survive the House, it will face major obstacles in the Senate. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told CNN on Monday that she has major misgivings about the global health cuts, including PEPFAR. 'I think we can change it. We're still figuring out what the set rules are,' Collins said. The White House sent its long-awaited spending cuts request to Congress as it seeks to formalize a slew of DOGE slashes to federal funding. The $9.4 billion package – known as 'rescissions' on Capitol Hill – would claw back previously appropriated government funding. The move to cancel the funding through Congress would insulate the administration from legal challenges related to its cuts to federal funding. Johnson said on Monday, 'We'd like to do multiple rescissions packages, and this first one I'm sure will be successful.' This initial request, however, is far more limited in scope than the more than $1 trillion in spending cuts that DOGE has promised. The lengthy time it took the White House to send over a first round of cuts underscores the uphill battle for even a Republican-led Congress to codify DOGE's work. CNN's Molly English contributed to this report.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Markey playing defense against GOP clean energy plans
BOSTON (SHNS) – U.S. Sen. Ed Markey vowed Monday to work with his GOP colleagues to block the passage of billions of dollars in clean energy cuts within a pending Senate proposal, after House Republicans passed a bill that would upend the climate resiliency investments he helped secure within the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. As Senate committees dive into the 'Big Beautiful Bill' that could reach President Donald Trump's desk by July 4, Markey said the version that narrowly passed the House last month would slash $500 billion from the 'clean energy revolution,' in addition to $760 billion in Medicaid cuts. The House reconciliation bill, which also features deep tax cuts and spending reductions, would repeal or accelerate the phaseout of IRA provisions, including tax credits tied to electric vehicles, clean electricity production and clean electricity investment, according to the Tax Foundation. 'I'm working with my Republican colleagues, especially from the red states, because 80% of all that funding has gone to red states in the IRA, and it's already created 400,000 new jobs,' Markey told business, academic and health care leaders at a New England Council breakfast at the Boston Harbor Hotel. 'The way we drafted the bill is, if you do the manufacturing in an energy transition state — meaning West Virginia, etc. — you get a bonus 10% tax break,' Markey continued. 'So that's where it all went over the last 3.5 years. Now if they cut those tax breaks, it's going to mean 900,000 jobs are going to be killed over the next 10 years that were otherwise going to be put in place. So I'm working with my Republican colleagues to try to find a pathway here to keep as much of that clean energy strategy for our country in place.' Markey told reporters he needs to find four Senate Republicans who are willing to preserve the clean energy tax credits. It will take a simple majority for the Senate to pass the reconciliation bill. Four Senate Republicans in April — Sens. Lisa Murkowski, John Curtis, Thom Tillis and Jerry Moran — voiced their opposition to a 'full-scale repeal' of energy tax credits, according to The Hill. On Friday, 13 House Republicans sent Senate leadership a letter requesting improvements to some of the clean energy provisions they passed, including one measure they said would 'would abruptly terminate several credits just 60 days after enactment for projects that have not yet begun construction.' Markey called the 60-day timeframe 'pretty draconian,' and said he plans to work on pushing out that date. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the environment, energy and climate cuts in the House bill would shrink the country's economy by $1.1 trillion over the next decade, according to Markey's office. The Malden Democrat joined union leaders at IBEW Local 103 in Dorchester on Friday to decry the House cuts. 'Repealing clean energy tax credits is a union job killer,' Lou Antonellis, business manager and financial secretary at IBEW Local 103, said in a statement shared by Markey's office. 'These tax credits help level the playing field, they drive investment, and they put IBW electricians, laborers, ironworkers, and pipe fitters to work building America's energy future. If you take those tax credits away, you're not just pulling funding: you're pulling paychecks from working families, you're pulling apprentices out of training facilities, you're pulling opportunity straight out of our communities.' At the New England Council forum, Markey pointed out that 94% of all new electrical generation capacity in the United States last year came from wind, solar and battery. Only 6% came from natural gas, he said. 'That's a threat to the natural gas industry,' Markey said. 'That's why Trump is trying to kill offshore wind because we just want to plug in all that electricity.' On his first day back in office in January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting new offshore wind projects. Massachusetts lawmakers have pegged offshore wind as key to reach its clean energy goals, while Trump has embraced natural gas and other fossil fuels. In last year's economic development bill, the Legislature agreed to a $400 million investment in climate technology, with an eye toward bolstering the offshore wind industry. Markey argued eliminating tax breaks for solar and onshore wind would make the New England region more dependent on energy sources from elsewhere in the country. He also lamented the financial blows that clean energy companies, including those based out of Greentown Labs in Somerville and The Engine in Cambridge, would experience without tax credits for electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and battery storage technologies. 'My concern is that if all of the clean energy tax breaks are killed, that will kill the wind and solar and all electric vehicle and battery storage technologies that come out of Massachusetts but are revolutionizing the nation's relationship with fossil fuels, which get into the lungs of the American people,' Markey told reporters. 'So I'm working with Republicans to try to find a way to preserve as many of the clean energy tax breaks, which will help our state, but it will also help those red states, as well, to transition to a clean energy future.' WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
