Historic NCAA settlement changes college sports and its future
In the ever changing world of college sports, more changes are coming and they are huge.
It seems that in current college sports, people act before they think. All of these changes come at a rapid pace, and the future is uncertain because of these changes. While changes are necessary in life, it is important to think about what they are doing, what they can cause and in some cases, how they need to be regulated.
ESPN recently released an article discussing NCAA’s latest settlement of three antitrust cases which will create a new structure for the sport.
The more than $2.7 billion of back damages and a new revenue-sharing model that come with the settlement of House v. NCAA and two related antitrust cases mark a distinct pivot for college sports. Amateurism, long a fragile and fleeting notion in the billion-dollar college sports industry, is officially dead. College sports, long a fractured group of fiefdoms, came together in an attempt to save themselves, with the jarring sight of five power leagues and the NCAA together on a press release.
From the fight to pay college athletes to this, it has been an incredibly rapid process for the sport. We’ve seen some positives come from the changes, but people tend to ignore the vast amounts of negatives that have come with these changes due to their lack of regulation and overall oversight of how greatly these changes can affect college sports without the right steps being taken.
While the settlement brings promise for future athletes with expected revenue sharing of over $20 million per school, it also brings confusion for coaches and campus leaders who are unsure about the new regulations. The NCAA hopes this move will gain favor with Congress and lead to protective federal legislation, but this is uncertain. Key issues like Title IX compliance, NIL enforcement, and roster caps remain unresolved. As college sports prepare for this transition, the challenges and ambiguity continue, reflecting the complex nature of these changes.
I’m not here to say they’re bad changes, I’m just cautious. History is our greatest teacher and from what I’ve seen from recent history, these changes are being made with no real plan for the future. It is a concern, but the positives are there.
