Latest news with #athletecompensation
New York Times
29 minutes ago
- Business
- New York Times
Mandel: House settlement clearinghouse won't create CFB's goal for more level playing field
With the House vs. NCAA settlement approved, college athletics is about to begin the latest chapter in its long history of attempting to interfere with the market for athletes' services. Let's see if this version holds up better in court than all the ones before it. As you know by now, the House settlement has given birth to a new system by which schools for the first time can directly pay their athletes up to $20.5 million this coming school year. The schools will insist these are purely NIL deals and do not constitute 'pay-for-play,' but of course, they are entirely contingent on the athlete playing for that university. And that's fine. Nothing wrong with paying someone for their services. Advertisement But where the settlement veers into outright market manipulation is the establishment of a new NIL Go clearinghouse, operated by Deloitte, by which athletes must submit all deals they receive from outside sources that exceed $600. Which, in the major sports, is pretty much all of them. If Deloitte deems, say, a running back's $1 million deal from a school's collective to be above 'fair market value,' he cannot accept it. In every other industry in this country, 'fair market value' is whatever someone is willing to pay you. Just ask the many mediocre football coaches who make $6-8 million a year. Or the athletic directors who make $1.2 million a year to hire those mediocre coaches. No clearinghouse for those folks. Every legal expert I've spoken with about this subject thinks there's little chance this clearinghouse would survive a legal challenge. It sure sounds like yet another instance of competitors (in this case, the Power conferences) conspiring to limit athletes' compensation. Go back and read the Supreme Court decision in Alston v. NCAA to see how the highest court in the land feels about restrictions on athletes' compensation. It's somewhat poetic the House settlement got approved during Game 3 of the WCWS, where $1M pitcher NiJaree Canady nearly led Texas Tech to an improbable national title. Because the purpose of the new Deloitte NIL clearinghouse is to stamp out collectives like Texas Tech's. — Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) June 7, 2025 Nevertheless, the Power conferences — it's them, not the NCAA driving this — are pressing ahead. On Monday, they proudly unveiled their newly created enforcement entity, the College Sports Commission, led by former Major League Baseball executive Bryan Seeley, who is likely being paid seven figures to make sure college athletes stop getting paid seven figures. Presumably, they've consulted with their lawyers, who have told them the thing is ironclad. The next Judge Wilken will be totally fine with it. By now, you may be asking yourself, 'Why are they doing this? Who exactly is being harmed by a transfer quarterback getting $3 million from a school's collective?' Athletes going into the portal at any moment is an understandable source of frustration, but the House settlement does nothing to address that issue. It just wants to curb how much one gets for going into the portal. Advertisement The stated reason, as Nick Saban, for one, has said 1,000 times, is the need for a 'level playing field.' It's not 'fair' that Texas Tech has an oil billionaire willing to spend $10 million-plus on the transfer portal if Alabama doesn't have one. How many times have we heard: This is not what NIL is intended for. It doesn't particularly matter at this point what NIL was intended for. This is what it's become. Collectives became a thing specifically because schools didn't want anything to do with paying athletes. Now that they're forced to, they want to unwind time and reverse things. But what's really rich is the whole 'level playing field' thing. There has never, ever been a level playing field in college recruiting. The schools with the most money have always held an advantage over everyone else. They have the most history, the biggest stadiums, the best-paid coaches and the most lavish facilities. Ohio State was dominating Purdue in recruiting long before there were ever NIL collectives, and the Buckeyes will keep dominating in the revenue-sharing era. You could set the cap at $60.5 million, not $20.5 million, and there's still no scenario where the Boilermakers would be able to outspend the Buckeyes. Meanwhile, people have been so busy the past few years shouting that the sky is falling that they've failed to notice that NIL may be the first development in history that's actually given a larger pool of teams a chance at landing top talent. The top quarterback in the portal this offseason, Tulane's Darian Mensah, did not go to Georgia or Ohio State. He chose Duke, where he's getting a reported $4 million NIL deal. The nation's No. 1 men's basketball recruit, A.J. Dybantsa, is not going to North Carolina or Kansas; he's going to BYU, for a reported $5 million deal. And last year, softball phenom NiJaree Canady turned down that sport's biggest juggernaut, Oklahoma, in favor of Texas Tech, which gave her that sport's first-ever seven-figure deal. Earlier this month, she and her team ended the Sooners' reign — and she signed another deal. Advertisement All of those deals got done before the House settlement was approved. Had they not, theoretically, Deloitte could flag them for being too far above 'market value.' Clearly, booster-driven collectives aren't going away. If Oracle founder Larry Ellison wants to give the next Michigan quarterback recruit $4 million, it seems highly unlikely someone could tell him no. Either the collectives will get more creative in how they structure their deals, or someone is going to sue and succeed in getting an injunction. Neither the schools nor the athletes would be the ones filing that suit because they're bound by the settlement. But boosters aren't bound by it. Companies aren't bound by it. And, most concerning to the conferences, state attorneys general aren't bound by it. They're the folks who succeeded in getting both the NCAA's booster restrictions and transfer restrictions shot down. We know this much: Most schools that plan to offer the maximum $20.5 million in House payments are following a formula by which they'll allocate around $13 million for football and $3 million for men's basketball. Ohio State last year spent $20 million on football alone, and many schools are spending way more than that this year. Kentucky is one of several programs planning to spend more than $10 million on men's basketball. Coaches' and administrators' salaries have only gone up and up and up over time, but the powers that be seem to think they can make athletes' unofficial salaries go down with their magic clearinghouse. That's not generally how markets work.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Colleges can now begin paying athletes directly following $2.8B landmark settlement
CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – Following a multibillion-dollar landmark settlement, colleges can now begin paying athletes directly. Athletes express concern over NCAA settlement's impact on non-revenue sports A federal judge approved the deal between the NCAA on Friday for Division One athletes. The NCAA can now pay thousands of current and former athletes who competed in college at any time from 2016 to now. A share of nearly $2.8 billion in damages is expected to be paid out over the next decade. 22News spoke to the community about this significant shift in the world of college sports. 'It feels good, like knowing that athletes are finally getting the money they deserve, especially after colleges make a lot of money off of athletes. So, I mean, definitely it's a great achievement for them. I'm proud of them,' said Rahman Martin of Springfield. During the decade-long agreement, the annual cap starts at roughly $20 million per school. It will then go up every year. Athletes will receive these new payments in addition to their scholarships and other benefits. 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.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How the NCAA House Ruling Could Reshape UNC Basketball
How the NCAA House Ruling Could Reshape UNC Basketball originally appeared on Athlon Sports. It was only recently that North Carolina basketball made headlines for its jaw-dropping $14 million NIL investment. This was a bold, unapologetic declaration that the Tar Heels were all-in on winning in the new era of college athletics. Advertisement Now, the rules have changed. With the formal approval of the House v. NCAA settlement on Friday night, UNC's strategy may be headed for a sudden and dramatic shift. The landmark decision not only ends years of litigation over athlete compensation but institutes a new framework that directly impacts how powerhouse programs like North Carolina do business. At the heart of it: a $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap that schools must now work within to fund all sports. And while outside NIL deals will still be allowed, the days of uncapped internal payouts, like the $14 million reportedly earmarked for Tar Heel hoops are likely numbered. So what does this mean for Carolina? Advertisement First, the math gets tighter. With football still a major university priority under new leadership, including front office veteran Bill Belichick, UNC will need to divvy up its share of the revenue cap carefully. Allocating most of it to men's basketball risks starving its football program at a time when it's chasing relevance in a competitive ACC landscape. Second, scrutiny rises. Under the new model, all NIL deals over $600 must pass through a clearinghouse to ensure they reflect fair market value and serve a legitimate business purpose. That oversight will test the creativity and legality of every booster-backed opportunity. Still, don't count UNC out. The Tar Heels boast a national brand, an NBA pipeline, and a roster of former players turned moguls ready to support current athletes through legitimate NIL opportunities. Those advantages don't disappear under the House ruling, they just need to be leveraged with precision. UNC head coach Hubert Davis in discussion with a referee.© Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports With a top-15 recruiting class inbound, transfers like 7-foot Arizona product Henri Veesaar, and international guard Luka Bogavac joining the fold, UNC remains a destination. But sustaining that momentum under tighter financial and regulatory conditions will require smarter spending, shrewder deals, and a more integrated athletic department than ever before. Advertisement The College Sports Commission, helmed by former MLB executive Bryan Seeley will enforce the new cap and audit programs that exceed it. That means every dollar spent in Chapel Hill now comes with risk. The Tar Heels helped define college basketball's past. Whether they can dominate its future will depend not just on their talent—but on their ability to adapt. Related: Former Top NBA Pick Speaks Out on NIL's Impact on Culture Related: EA Sports to Use Pay-for-Play Incentives for College Teams This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
CNN
3 days ago
- Business
- CNN
Federal judge approves $2.8B settlement, paving way for US colleges to pay athletes millions
Source: AP A federal judge signed off on arguably the biggest change in the history of college sports Friday, clearing the way for schools to begin paying their athletes millions of dollars as soon as next month as the multibillion-dollar industry shreds the last vestiges of the amateur model that defined it for more than a century. Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing, U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits, just one of many changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports. The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years. The agreement brings a seismic shift to hundreds of schools that were forced to reckon with the reality that their players are the ones producing the billions in TV and other revenue, mostly through football and basketball, that keep this machine humming. The scope of the changes — some have already begun — is difficult to overstate. The professionalization of college athletics will be seen in the high-stakes and expensive recruitment of stars on their way to the NFL and NBA, and they will be felt by athletes whose schools have decided to pare their programs. The agreement will resonate in nearly every one of the NCAA's 1,100 member schools boasting nearly 500,000 athletes. 'Approving the agreement reached by the NCAA, the defendant conferences and student-athletes in the settlement opens a pathway to begin stabilizing college sports,' NCAA President Charlie Baker said. Wilken's ruling comes 11 years after she dealt the first significant blow to the NCAA ideal of amateurism when she ruled in favor of former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon and others who were seeking a way to earn money from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) — a term that is now as common in college sports as 'March Madness' or 'Roll Tide.' It was just four years ago that the NCAA cleared the way for NIL money to start flowing, but the changes coming are even bigger. Wilken granted preliminary approval to the settlement last October. That sent colleges scurrying to determine not only how they were going to afford the payments, but how to regulate an industry that also allows players to cut deals with third parties so long as they are deemed compliant by a newly formed enforcement group that will be run by auditors at Deloitte. The agreement takes a big chunk of oversight away from the NCAA and puts it in the hands of the four biggest conferences. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC hold most of the power and decision-making heft, especially when it comes to the College Football Playoff, which is the most significant financial driver in the industry and is not under the NCAA umbrella like the March Madness tournaments are. The deal looked ready to go since last fall, but Wilken put a halt to it after listening to a number of players who had lost their spots because of newly imposed roster limits being placed on teams. The limits were part of a trade-off that allowed the schools to offer scholarships to everyone on the roster, instead of only a fraction, as has been the case for decades. Schools started cutting walk-ons in anticipation of the deal being approved. Wilken asked for a solution and, after weeks, the parties decided to let anyone cut from a roster — now termed a 'Designated Student-Athlete' — return to their old school or play for a new one without counting against the new limit. Wilken ultimately agreed, going point-by-point through the objectors' arguments to explain why they didn't hold up. 'The modifications provide Designated Student-Athletes with what they had prior to the roster limits provisions being implemented, which was the opportunity to be on a roster at the discretion of a Division I school,' Wilken wrote. Her decision, however, took nearly a month to write, leaving the schools and conferences in limbo — unsure if the plans they'd been making for months, really years, would go into play. 'It remains to be seen how this will impact the future of inter-collegiate athletics — but as we continue to evolve, Carolina remains committed to providing outstanding experiences and broad-based programming to student-athletes,' North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. The list of winners and losers is long and, in some cases, hard to tease out. A rough guide of winners would include football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, which will devote much of their bankroll to signing and retaining them. For instance, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's NIL deal is reportedly worth between $10.5 million and $12 million. Losers will be the walk-ons and partial scholarship athletes whose spots are gone. One of the adjustments made at Wilken's behest was to give those athletes a chance to return to the schools that cut them in anticipation of the deal going through. Also in limbo are Olympic sports many of those athletes play and that serve as the main pipeline for a U.S. team that has won the most medals at every Olympics since the downfall of the Soviet Union. All this is a price worth paying, according to the attorneys who crafted the settlement and argue they delivered exactly what they were asked for: an attempt to put more money in the pockets of the players whose sweat and toil keep people watching from the start of football season through March Madness and the College World Series in June. What the settlement does not solve is the threat of further litigation. Though this deal brings some uniformity to the rules, states still have separate laws regarding how NIL can be doled out, which could lead to legal challenges. NCAA President Charlie Baker has been consistent in pushing for federal legislation that would put college sports under one rulebook and, if he has his way, provide some form of antitrust protection to prevent the new model from being disrupted again. See Full Web Article
Fox News
3 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Federal judge approves $2.8B settlement allowing schools to directly pay college athletes
A federal judge granted final approval on Friday to the $2.8 billion settlement that will allow colleges and universities to begin paying athletes directly. Judge Claudia Wilken approved the settlement on Friday that will allow schools to pay their athletes next month. The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years. Payouts will be determined based on the sport and the length of athletic career, with most football and men's basketball players able to receive nearly $135,000 each. However, the highest estimated payout is expected to be nearly $2 million, thanks to "Lost NIL Opportunities," according to the law firm. Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing, Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits, just one of many changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports. The deal covers three antitrust cases — including the class-action lawsuit known as House vs. the NCAA — that challenged NCAA compensation rules dating back to 2016. The plaintiffs claimed that NCAA rules denied thousands of athletes the opportunity to earn millions of dollars off the use of their names, images and likenesses. The NCAA lifted its ban on athletes earning money through endorsement and sponsorship deals in 2021. At one point, President Donald Trump was considering an executive order to regulate name, image and likeness in college sports after meeting with legendary Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban, the Wall Street Journal reported. On Fox News last year, Saban urged Congress to step in and make NIL "equal across the board." "And I think that should still exist for all players, but not just a pay-for-play system like we have now where whoever raises the most money in their collective can pay the most for the players, which is not a level playing field. I think in any competitive venue, you want to have some guidelines that gives everyone an equal opportunity to have a chance to be successful," he said. The settlement also called for a clearinghouse to make sure any NIL deal worth more than $600 is pegged at fair market value in an attempt to thwart supposed pay-for-play deals. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
