House Settlement

[hbvol1982]

The real trick now is figuring out how to split up the money. 70% to football means +\- average $130-$140 grand per player ($14,500,000 / 105 players). Average. Starters vs Backups. Skill vs Linemen. Seniors vs Freshmen. Can we structure to reduce player movement? Should we pay everyone the same and allow additional NIL to define their worth? More incentive to stay in school longer or most talent gets most money? A fascinating problem. Schools will do it differently and some will thrive and some get crushed. It will take a few years before a standard model takes hold. Buckle up.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

With a $20M +/- in house cap, successful schools are going to need more than that so there will have to be more money outside of the school.

It's just a matter of how much a school is willing to spend on athletics but if Ohio State spent about $20M JUST on football, you can see more money is going to be needed for other sports there.

House doesn't change much, IMO, except to push the ball toward "student athletes" becoming "employee athletes

I said about 3 years ago that this was going to happen and everyone was like "nah, academic requirements will never go away". Well, here we are on that doorstep!

 

[Delmar]

The "Clearinghouse" is likely illegal. The schools and NCAA have a long way to go, IMO, to establish their right to police NIL or have someone else police NIL.

Why should they have that right over a player's NIL? They've lost that lawsuit repeatedly already. The players didn't agree to this lawsuit with some kind of collective bargaining nor can they opt in or out as far as I know. If they can, they'll all opt out of having their NIL limited.

Agree. I see no way that you can limit NIL. That will be separate from the schools paying players directly.

 

[ALStateLineVol]

I'm interested in how the "clearhouse" establishes "fair value". I've always been under the impression that fair value is what someone is willing to pay, so how can a third party tell a school they are over-compensating a player? Isn't that why we are in this mess now, limiting a student athlete's monetary potential by placing guardrails?
IMO, two things should happen, 1) sign a contract that is legal and binding; 2) fix the portal to only 1 window a year (December sometime most logical). Any other transfer outside the window results in 1 year waiting period.

 

[CINCYVOL]

This settlement includes 2 main components: 1) schools paying for play. This includes an initial cap of $20.5 million per school to pay to players at schools option. Most think that majority of that money will go to football & basketball players, but that will be decided by each school.

2) NIL - players will still be allowed to accept NIL deals.The difference is that there will be a 3rd party “Clearinghouse” that will be set up to review NIL deals to make sure they are “fair market value”. I’m assuming this will do away with the current Collectives. This will be a mess in my opinion.

You can’t put a limit on how much someone can be paid

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

I'm interested in how the "clearhouse" establishes "fair value". I've always been under the impression that fair value is what someone is willing to pay, so how can a third party tell a school they are over-compensating a player? Isn't that why we are in this mess now, limiting a student athlete's monetary potential by placing guardrails?
IMO, two things should happen, 1) sign a contract that is legal and binding; 2) fix the portal to only 1 window a year (December sometime most logical). Any other transfer outside the window results in 1 year waiting period.

1. Enforceable contracts means the players are actually employees of the school, not student athletes.

2. The portal goes away if we have signed contracts. They'll not be students long if you're contracting them to play ball for your school, they're employees so school attendance disappears quickly. You can't force an employee to go to school for something unrelated to their job.

You can't MAKE an electrician for UT go to school to get a degree in history or something. That's crazy and you won't be able to make a linebacker for UT go to school to get a history degree or something either.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

You can’t put a limit on how much someone can be paid

In before "the pros have salary caps" while the people making that statement insist college players are not pros and are not employees of the school.

Having it both ways isn't even offered at Burger King.

 

[Delmar]

1. Enforceable contracts means the players are actually employees of the school, not student athletes.

2. The portal goes away if have signed contracts. They'll not be students long if you're contracting them to play ball for your school, they're employees so school attendance disappears quickly. You can't force an employee to go to school for something unrelated to their job.

You can't MAKE an electrician for UT go to school to get a degree in history or something. That's crazy and you won't be able to make a linebacker for UT go to school to get a history degree or something either.

Welcome to true professional football. A player signing a contract to play for UT with no obligation for academic work is no different than a player signing to play football for the Dallas Cowboys. Just another employee.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

I'm interested in how the "clearhouse" establishes "fair value". I've always been under the impression that fair value is what someone is willing to pay, so how can a third party tell a school they are over-compensating a player? Isn't that why we are in this mess now, limiting a student athlete's monetary potential by placing guardrails?
IMO, two things should happen, 1) sign a contract that is legal and binding; 2) fix the portal to only 1 window a year (December sometime most logical). Any other transfer outside the window results in 1 year waiting period.

What could be more American than having a 3rd party decide how much your NIL or anything you can get paid for is worth?

It's the American Way to have someone else decide how much you can get paid, right? Uh..... No.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Welcome to true professional football. A player signing a contract to play for UT with no obligation for academic work is no different than a player signing to play football for the Dallas Cowboys. Just another employee.

Exactly. I can't see how this can do anything but make it very easy for players to be declared employees of the school.

The quicker the SEC and B1G get out of this mess the NCAA has become and get on the ball developing the pro league to come, the better.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

In before "the pros have salary caps" while the people making that statement insist college players are not pros and are not employees of the school.

Having it both ways isn't even offered at Burger King.

Plus salary caps have nothing to do with what a player might make on endorsements, which is essentially what NIL will be the equivalent of for college players.

Players getting a paycheck from the university has more to do with eliminating the crazy transfer portal and keeping those players at that school for 3-4 years than it does the money itself, assuming it will be tied to binding contracts.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Plus salary caps have nothing to do with what a player might make on endorsements, which is essentially what NIL will be the equivalent of for college players.

Players getting a paycheck from the university has more to do with eliminating the crazy transfer portal and keeping those players at that school for 3-4 years than it does the money itself, assuming it will be tied to binding contracts.

If there are binding contracts, the players will be called pros, not students, pretty quickly. If you're signing a contract to play football or whatever for a team, you're a pro athlete.

School disappears quickly in that equation, IMO. Transfer issues will pale against what happens when the players unionize and start negotiating for way more than $20M as a team cap.

 

[onevol74]

Time for the schools to push athletics out to a farm team system. It no longer has anything to do with education or academics. RIP college tradition.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

Someone help me out here. With all the comments this has become very confusing.

1. Is there going to be separate contracts for $ with the school and possibly a separate deal with an NIL collective?

2. If a player is under contract with the school and is a de facto 'employee' doesn't that mean the school has to provide them benefits?

3. Are schollies now gone and they are no longer students that have to go to class? I don't see that as good thing at all.

4. If your under contract is the portal option gone? I don't see that holding up legally.

 

[The Original Fade]

As a father of a high school athlete going through the recruiting process for baseball I am ok with this. However, if eligibility limits get challenged and overturned in court it will have a devastating effect on high school athletes looking to play at the next level. There simply won’t be hardly any spots on rosters because selfish players that can’t give up the dream and become an adult will just keep taking extra hours at school and getting paid their NIL to play for 7,8, 9 years or so

 

[feathersax]

Welcome to true professional football. A player signing a contract to play for UT with no obligation for academic work is no different than a player signing to play football for the Dallas Cowboys. Just another employee.

So, they put a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. Meh.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

As a father of a high school athlete going through the recruiting process for baseball I am ok with this. However, if eligibility limits get challenged and overturned in court it will have a devastating effect on high school athletes looking to play at the next level. There simply won’t be hardly any spots on rosters because selfish players that can’t give up the dream and become an adult will just keep taking extra hours at school and getting paid their NIL to play for 7,8, 9 years or so

That's not exactly how I see it. The SCHOOL will continue to keep those players that can help the team. If the old guys can't make it, they get cut. If the young guys can't make it, they get cut.

Athletes have been recruited over and pushed out by schools regularly and that will still happen. What it means is a young kid needs to be ready when they get to college to contribute and that's especially true with the decreased roster in baseball.

You'd ask the school to "DEI" the young guys a spot instead of keeping a better player? Is that really what you want to do?

 

[JacketVol]

As a father of a high school athlete going through the recruiting process for baseball I am ok with this. However, if eligibility limits get challenged and overturned in court it will have a devastating effect on high school athletes looking to play at the next level. There simply won’t be hardly any spots on rosters because selfish players that can’t give up the dream and become an adult will just keep taking extra hours at school and getting paid their NIL to play for 7,8, 9 years or so

Even if they out eligibility limits, with this class it has already became very difficult for high school kids to do anything besides juco and very small schools due to bigger schools using the portal. Roster limits just make it worse.

My son just put the baseball down so he could go to college where he wanted to go for all four years. And he had a MLB scout tell him he could dominate at D2 and transfer in two years to D1. But he would’ve had to go Juco because school he wanted to go to takes a few portal players.

He was a 2024. It’s worse for 2025 and is going to be worse going forward. Good luck to your son.

 

[Dadof2Vols]

In before "the pros have salary caps" while the people making that statement insist college players are not pros and are not employees of the school.

Having it both ways isn't even offered at Burger King.

Pros have salary cap on pay from team but there is no cap on the pro players NIL just like there will never be a cap on a college players NIL according to Supreme Court.

 

[Dadof2Vols]

As a father of a high school athlete going through the recruiting process for baseball I am ok with this. However, if eligibility limits get challenged and overturned in court it will have a devastating effect on high school athletes looking to play at the next level. There simply won’t be hardly any spots on rosters because selfish players that can’t give up the dream and become an adult will just keep taking extra hours at school and getting paid their NIL to play for 7,8, 9 years or so

I understand your point and I am sympathetic to your child but it is not completely selfish to stay another year if they are getting paid.

 

[Okie]

1. Enforceable contracts means the players are actually employees of the school, not student athletes.

2. The portal goes away if we have signed contracts. They'll not be students long if you're contracting them to play ball for your school, they're employees so school attendance disappears quickly. You can't force an employee to go to school for something unrelated to their job.

You can't MAKE an electrician for UT go to school to get a degree in history or something. That's crazy and you won't be able to make a linebacker for UT go to school to get a history degree or something either.

Not so sure on either point. Students sign contracts to live in the dorms, accept scholarships, etc., and are not employees. So just signing a contract doesn't make them employees. It's what is in the contract that might be determined by a court that could make them employees. The schools will do everything they can to avoid that.

There are a a ton of "student" jobs on campus that require you to be a student to hold them. I worked for several departments while in school and every job required me to be enrolled. In a couple of cases, my major had to be in the area where I worked. So there is precedent there as well.

The whole thing is still way too squishy for me. I expect that by Monday afternoon, there will be a lawsuit somewhere challenging this. Not to get political, but if the recent wave of lawsuits stopping the Trump administration from doing things is any indicator, some lawyer is going to seek to get this whole settlement put on hold nationwide - at minimum - until the player gets a hearing. There's too much money involved and too many questions still unanswered for this to be settled.

 

[The Original Fade]

That's not exactly how I see it. The SCHOOL will continue to keep those players that can help the team. If the old guys can't make it, they get cut. If the young guys can't make it, they get cut.

Athletes have been recruited over and pushed out by schools regularly and that will still happen. What it means is a young kid needs to be ready when they get to college to contribute and that's especially true with the decreased roster in baseball.

You'd ask the school to "DEI" the young guys a spot instead of keeping a better player? Is that really what you want to do?

No, I just want college sports to be college sports, not a sub pro league

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Not so sure on either point. Students sign contracts to live in the dorms, accept scholarships, etc., and are not employees. So just signing a contract doesn't make them employees. It's what is in the contract that might be determined by a court that could make them employees. The schools will do everything they can to avoid that.

There are a a ton of "student" jobs on campus that require you to be a student to hold them. I worked for several departments while in school and every job required me to be enrolled. In a couple of cases, my major had to be in the area where I worked. So there is precedent there as well.

The whole thing is still way too squishy for me. I expect that by Monday afternoon, there will be a lawsuit somewhere challenging this. Not to get political, but if the recent wave of lawsuits stopping the Trump administration from doing things is any indicator, some lawyer is going to seek to get this whole settlement put on hold nationwide - at minimum - until the player gets a hearing. There's too much money involved and too many questions still unanswered for this to be settled.

The NIL "Clearinghouse" is challenged and blocked within days, IMO. The NCAA hasn't won an NIL limiting case and won't win on the "Clearinghouse" either.

The "revenue sharing" contracts will first be blocked because it's not fair to have the NCAA and schools decide "this percentage is enough revenue sharing for players" without negotiating with the players. A non negotiated team cap, IMO, will never last because only one side, the NCAA and schools, decided what was fair compensation without the other side, the players, being able to negotiate their idea of what's fair compensation. There's nothing fair about a group of schools deciding: this is what we should pay and all we're going to pay.

That's collusion to limit the athlete's compensation in the marketplace. That won't last either, IMO.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

No, I just want college sports to be college sports, not a sub pro league

That ship you see in the distance isn't sailing toward you.

 

[VolFanNC09]

I don’t like the whole clearinghouse thing. It will lead to corruption just like the NCAA’s selective enforcements. Some kids will get cleared while others won’t for the same types of contracts. It will just be the same type of selective enforcement that they did before.