Most of you already heard about the NCAA agreeing to resolve three of the pending anti-trust suits against it on Thursday. These suits essentially challenged the NCAA rules on the compensation and benefits that college athletes are allowed to receive, as well as how NIL money can be paid to college athletes. The headline is that, if the settlement is approved by the court, around $20 billion will be paid by the NCAA to Division I college athletes that played as far back as 2016. And, oh, yeah, now the universities can directly pay players NIL money and revenue sharing is a reality. Some great discussions on the settlement can be found at The Athletic ($$$) and at ESPN. One thing is certain, the NCAA sound byte about amateurism is officially dead.
There’s still Fontenot v. NCAA in Colorado that will address caps on athlete compensation, and there’s no resolution yet on the athlete/employee/union question, but to say there’s gonna be a few changes as a result of this settlement would grossly understate what’s ahead for college athletics.
Part of the revenue sharing model suggests universities will share roughly 22% of the school’s average annual revenue with the athletes. Apparently, that’s estimated to be an average of around $20 million.
There’s going to be many smaller details that will have enormous impacts. For example, the Athletic article cited above sets out
The settlement will also eliminate NCAA scholarship caps, the plaintiffs’ lawyers confirmed in a news release, expected to give way instead to roster limits.
OK, scholarship caps are gone and, instead, players are enjoying some revenue sharing. And roster limits allows the universities to divert money instead to other sports (a nice thought) or to do whatever they choose to do with it (a safer bet). Right now, the football scholarship cap is at 85, but allows many walk-ons over that. Imagine how that plays with a roster limit at 85. Gone are the days of walk-on long snappers. And the era of “I can be the next Stetson Bennett” is over.
Once the judge approves it, the settlement is supposed to go into effect now, not at an undetermined future date. Knowing there is going to be a hard roster cap around 85, how does a coach handle recruiting from now until the judge approves and the details are set? Some version of grey-shirting-on-steroids?
If you think college athletic staffs are bloated now, wait and see how many new positions universities create to handle the new college football world.
There are always unintended consequences when big changes to big operations occur. What do y’all see in your crystal football?
Greed eventually ruins everything. Can’t have nothin.
The university’s control of NIL and payments will have some strings that discourage transfers. Players will now sue if they are kicked off a team, just like fired employees do now. The Hartman fund will absorb the classic city collective. My season ticket seat locations will be available in the near future.
Boy I miss the Senator’s insight. I think the ending of walk-ons is a horrible side affect. We all don’t bloom at the same time or rate. I do think that the athletes deserve to be compensated for the risk to their bodies.
A ton of effective game planning is executed by the whole team and more than a few walk on’s, we all know CKS is gonna’ keep UGA football (analysts) ahead of the college football world/sec as he can (will go on the limb) and say $$$$$ may not be a short coming, understanding ncaa can’t get out of it’s own way, any and all companies that used NIL for profit should be whipped in the town square from 8-5 monday thru friday with ALL the student athletes getting first shot at that ass prior to the general public, now with nil, institutions might off the hook for any potential insurance liabilities, student athletes might be paying for any type of career ending injury policy coverage available…GO DAWGS!!
DIW, I think you caught the essence of Kirby. Aside from his unflinching focus, his biggest strength is that he has become the Master of Adaptation. He doesn’t sit around bitching about changes in the college football environment. He figures out how the changes work and positions us to best function/succeed in that environment. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
I suspect there will be a way to still have walkons; they will be practice-only and won’t count as rostered players. Is that enough incentive to get your head beat in 5 days a week? Maybe a little less for some, but not all.
As for staff size, I’m not sure it will increase with fewer dollars to spend on them since the players will be paid. Perhaps the new TV contracts will help mitigate that for the Power 2 schools, but that may be it.
Tickets and media rights are in the revenue sharing pot, so us fans will absorb that, not the schools. Since scholarships count as revenue sharing, watch the “sticker price” of college go up for non-athletes while the universities have almost zero net cost of giving those away. Hell…by the time this shakes out the top schools will make more under this deal than before, all the while bemoaning the agreement.
I am still gob-smacked a clearly better arrangement could not have been worked out years ago by the NCAA “leadership”. The biggest WTF in all of sports history.
“…if the football limit stays at 85….”
Those words were copied from one of the linked articles(emphass in the word IF), and I don’t think that there is anything yet to say that the roster limit will be 85. That said, who wants to be a walk-on, especially at UGA if there are scholarship limits? So, maybe there won’t be any more Stetson stories, but remember, Stetson left for a scholly at a junior college and only came back because he got a scholarship. Just saying that it might not be as different as you might think, and if there is a coach that has a plan for it, it is going to be Kirby.
You’re correct, I haven’t seen any details on the exact roster cap number either. But 85 wouldn’t surprise me. All that’s been implied (and we can infer) is that it will be a lower number than the current level and that everyone on the roster will be revenue sharing. Money’s tight (lol) so costs must be cut somewhere.
Agreed that Kirby’s on it and likely 3 steps ahead of most.
They are talking roster limits not scholarship limits. In theory, Dan Jackson and SBIV never get a chance to put on a college uniform unless they went to a lower tier school. Baker Mayfield doesn’t get a shot at either Texas Tech or Oklahoma.
Maybe there will be spots on the “practice squad” for guys who are willing to be unpaid live tackling dummies, but those guys will never get a shot to put on the G for a real game much less be able to step on the field for a play with 93k in attendance.
I know the difference between scholarship limits and roster limits, but until we know what the roster limits are it isn’t worth worrying about. And maybe DJ and SBIV don’t get P5 scholarship offers, but if they do go to a lower tier school and perform well, you know they can portal up if they want to do so. Oh, and what said about DJ and SBIV could also be said about McConkey, except Kirby was willing to spend a scholarship on him. Talent evaluation is key and Kirby is on it. My thinking is that there are a number PWOs that would have gotten scholarships, except for the limit om scholarships. As long as the roster limits are larger than 85 it will end up better for teams and players. Regardless, I trust Kirby to have a handle on it.
The only thing I know is that the unintended consequences of this are going to be a bitch. Eventually, someone who washes out in their professional sports endeavors is going to sue whatever is the new governance structure to say why can’t I go back to college because I can earn money as a college athlete. It’s a restriction on my ability to trade on my name, image & likeness. Someone is going to sue over the academic requirements saying that isn’t related to sports participation.
The NCAA and its member institutions made their bed … now, they get to sleep in it.
“Tick, tock” goes the clock on my continued interest in college sports.
Andy Staples said that a new limit would be placed on the size of the entire roster. They are not going to have scholarship limits. So technically all the players on the 120 man squad could have scholarships now. So yes there might not be any walkons because the whole squad would be on scholarships. The rest of the stuff about revenue sharing will be the thing that kills college football. If they use the 22% of revenue to the players, the bigger schools Power 5 will just be getting another advantage. The smaller schools Group of 5 will have less revenue to share and will just serve as the minor leagues for the Power 5. A great suggestion about the transfer portal was that the school taking a transfer has to pay the school losing the player a fee. This would compensate the Group of 5 schools like the minor leagues they are about to become.
All in all this is what happens went the can gets kicked down the road. The NCAA could have been proactive but were too greedy too long and it’s ended up biting College sports in the butt.
I know this has evolved and is way beyond NIL at this point but do you think Ed O’Bannon and his lawyers/advisors file the lawsuit if they had a crystal ball view of college sports today?
Yes. O’Bannon sued because a video game was making money off of his likeness without his permission. I don’t blame him.
Glad we got ours when we did.
A super conference that mirrors the nfl in nearly every respect. Once its viewed that way by the public, will it remain profitable and competitive with the league? Tbd….
I will continue to insist that playing with college students is a superior model. Jacking up admissions standards would sift out the “exploitation” argument, which is a legitimate one in the current form, and college football could once again be what it was intended to be. The love of money must be tempered with some shared values or it all just goes to shit. Damn shame.
The failure of the NCAA and their membership to effectively guide college athletics into the future has been epic. It’s been an amazing failure of leadership driven by greed and incompetence.
So thankful McGarity was forced to hire Kirby instead of his guy Dan Mullen. That Georgia has the best CFB coach and leadership in all the land. With B2B natty’s is something I thought I would never see.