NCAA settlement marks new chapter of college sports athlete compensation
The college sports landscape — more precisely, the process of compensating college athletes — is rapidly changing. The transfer portal and NIL were game-changers. Now we have another milestone to consider. USA TODAY Sports and Steve Berkowitz reported the latest big story involving the NCAA and the Power Five conferences:
“The NCAA, the Power Five conferences and lawyers for the plaintiffs in three antitrust cases concerning the compensation of college athletes on Thursday completed approvals of a proposed settlement that would include a nearly $2.8 billion damages pool for current and former athletes and fundamentally alter how current and future athletes are paid for playing their sports.
“The SEC and the Pac-12 conferences provided their approvals of the deal on Thursday, sources familiar with those actions told USA TODAY Sports. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing state of the process, which includes the parties needing to craft a formal version of the proposed agreement and obtain court approval for it. Thursday’s moves followed approvals earlier this week from the other three conferences and two NCAA governing boards.”
What does this mean? There’s a lot to sort out here, and one article can’t fully address all of the ramifications involved. Simply put, schools will be able to more directly compensate players. That much we know. How the mechanism will be regulated and governed is the more open question. Another big point of discussion is whether the dollar amounts discussed in the settlement will be sufficient to compensate athletes across the board. It is not universally agreed upon that these dollar figures will achieve what athlete advocates hope they will achieve. We’ll continue to follow this story as it evolves. Turn to USA TODAY Sports for continuing updates and analysis.
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