By Samantha Campion, Sept. 10, 2024
The National Collegiate Athletic Association released a statement regarding class-action lawsuit settlements that will enforce new regulations to benefit student-athletes and establish a new model of Division I college sports beginning in the 2025-2026 season.
According to the NCAA, the settlement addresses three primary cases involving the payment back to athletes for claims relating to Name, Image and Likeness, academic-related awards, NIL opportunities for student-athletes directly with the institution, and eliminating scholarship limits in favor of roster limits.
The settlement attempts to repay athletes who were denied NIL opportunities as far back as 2016. Approximately $2.78 billion will be distributed over the next 10 years, primarily to men’s basketball and football players.
“This is another important step in the ongoing effort to provide increased benefits to student-athletes while creating a stable and sustainable model for the future of college sports,” an NCAA spokesperson wrote in a press release.
Under the new regulations, student-athletes will directly benefit from NIL opportunities within their institutions by receiving up to 22% of their school’s annual revenue, and the amount will increase each year.
“I feel like it is making some colleges become more businesslike than genuine,” CPP women’s basketball guard Andrea Stajic said. “On the other hand, it is very good for the sport because athletes are getting more opportunities.”
The last part of the settlement will enforce new roster-size limits that allow schools to provide additional scholarships to their student-athletes as scholarship caps have been removed.
Stajic shared the significance of receiving an athletic scholarship. Stajic transferred into the program last season after spending her freshman year at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a Division I school in the Big West.
“I am lucky to play basketball, and when going Division I for basketball, they only do full scholarships; therefore, it was more about me finding the right school rather than the right scholarship,” Stajic said. “It does mean a lot to me to receive a scholarship though because it is a big reward for all the hard work that I have put in to get to this point.”
Division I programs will move away from headcount sports where scholarships must be full-rides and toward equivalency sports where individual scholarships can be divided among multiple student-athletes.
Equivalency scholarships provide schools the flexibility to grant partial scholarships to more student-athletes where they see fit, as college coaches are not required to distribute scholarship money to every athlete on their roster.
Prior to the settlement, football awarded 85 full-ride scholarships, and with the new rule change, the roster will increase to 105 spots, with partial scholarships available. The new regulations will not be applied to Division II or III athletics.
Cal Poly Pomona’s associate athletic director and deputy title IX coordinator Christie Jones revealed Division II athletic scholarships are funded primarily by the state and student success fees with limited travel rosters set by the California Collegiate Athletics Assocation and NCAA travel parties.
Jones recognizes that Division I college athletics entered a new era where power five programs are directly affected by NIL and utilize it as a tool for recruiting packages where student-athletes will be paid as professional athletes. However, with the new settlement proposed, programs could face a struggle adhering to equality between men’s and women’s sports.
“From the Title IX perspective, I’m thankful I’m not in the Division I landscape where I’m having to face those issues,” Jones said. “Our Title IX equity is not perfect, but we are working in that direction, and I can see where this is going to sway men vs. women. The men’s basketball and football programs just by pure numbers are bigger than women’s sports and those institutions are going to have to get creative in making sure those numbers are equitable to the Title IX requirements.”
As revenue-sharing sports, football and men’s basketball generate the most financial income for their universities and require further discussion if those participating will be rewarded with larger amounts of compensation than their female counterparts.
College sports that are considered non-revenue, including soccer or swimming, could be at a disadvantage to receive budget cuts or downsize in coaching staff to balance revenue counterparts.
While the new settlement currently awaits official approval, the extent to which Division I schools will be financially impacted is unknown and requires an adjustment period going into next year.
Photo courtesy of Lauren Wong