College athletics is about to change forever

Yahoo

16 hours ago

Hello everyone, I'm Dan Lucy on the Ozarks First digital desk.
Friday night a federal judge approved a $2.8 billion dollar settlement that paves the way for colleges to pay their student-athletes.
Starting July first, the old college formula of amateur athletes getting scholarships and meal money is gone.
This is all the result of grant house.
Grant was a swimmer at Arizona State University who said athletes invest a lot of their time and bring a lot money to the university, and they ought to get a cut of that.
He sued the NCAA.
And after nearly five years of bickering, both sides agreed to a settlement.
And Friday a federal judge approved the deal.
Out of that $2.8 billion dollars, colleges and universities will be allowed to pay out as much as $20 million dollars a year to their student athletes.
That means about 50 percent of the school's sports revenue will pay athletic salaries.
A cut of that money will also pay former athletes who missed out on name, image and likeness money.
Where will they get all of that money?
They'll try to solicit donations from alumni.
And some sports economists say they'll have to make some cuts to things like coaches' pay, facilities and maybe even non-revenue-bearing sports.
Richard Paulsen/Michigan Sports Management Professor: 'Another place you might see cuts is Olympic sports…. And now if more money is going to the athletes and football, let's say, that's less money that can be used to cover, you know, scholarships and some of these other sports.'
Because of this settlement, teams will have roster limits instead of scholarship limits.
That means there may not be any room for walk-ons.
Another concern, the big power conference schools will just get richer and bigger.
And who decides how much the athletes will get paid?
The plan is for the conferences and universities to set the pay scale.
One of the biggest and powerful conferences is the Southeastern Conference.
Mizzou and Arkansas are a part of that super conference.
And SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey reacted to the decision.
And he says ultimately it'll be a good thing for college athletics.
Greg Sankey/SEC commissioner (it's a good thing…but there will be growing pains)
This settlement, and all the money involved was one of the driving forces that moved Missouri State from the Valley to Conference USA.
We'll have to wait and see how this all pans out.
One things for sure.
The old days of college sports in the 50's and 60's is long gone.
For more sports watch Ozarks First news at nine and ten.
And I'll see you then.
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