OXFORD – Buckle up, college sports fans. The next iteration of name, image and likeness is here and is once again changing the way schools do business.
Last week, a judge approved a settlement in the House vs. NCAA case that will allow schools to “directly pay players” a shared $20.5 million in NIL for the 2025-26 academic year, according to the Associated Press. NIL deals were previously brokered through third-party organizations like collectives and local businesses. That money can now come from the schools themselves. Former athletes from 2016-24 will also be eligible for “back pay” according to the AP.
An appeal to the settlement was filed Wednesday over alleged Title IX violations, according to ESPN, but the appeal is not expected to impact payments to “current athletes starting July 1.”
In an interview with the Daily Journal, Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter said five Rebels sports will receive revenue sharing – football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball. Each sport will receive a budget number and will be free to divide it how they see fit
New revenue streams to pay for the $20.5 million are still being worked through, and cost-cutting measures are being put into place as well. But there are no plans to cut any sports, Carter said, stating it would be “our very last resort” and “we’re nowhere close to that right now.”
Does this settlement fix everything? What’s next from your perspective as an administrator?
No, I don’t think it fixes everything. I think it’s a very good step, a large step. We needed this to happen. But I do … think there’s we’re going to continue to work through. I mean, even just logistical things and technical things … There’s just some things that we’re going to have to work into, and I think just like with any new process there’s going to be probably some bumps in the road. But I think overall the structure is a good one. I think it’s well thought out. I think it has a chance. And again, we … as the practitioners, as the coaches, as the administrators we have to make sure that we want this to work. And I think if we work hard to do that, I think it can work
How do you feel about – and I know we’re not here yet – but the idea of student-athletes being employees?
I think that would be a big mistake. We have a settlement now. … We have to be the ones to try to make this work. And if we decide we want to try to make it work, then I think it has a great shot. Are there other iterations of this new model down the road? Absolutely. … Do student-athletes need a voice? Do they need some type of kind-of-short-of collective bargaining with some kind of seat at the table when we’re making these decisions? Maybe they do. And I think we’re for that. But right now, we feel like we have a strong settlement. We feel like there’s guardrails in place, there’s a structure in place, and now it’s our job to make it work
Now that it’s official, what does this all mean?
I think it’s a great step forward to create a new model. We knew that rev share was inevitable. We knew that was coming. We had to come to some terms and figure out a way to move forward with that. And I think most people in our industry, on the administrative side, certainly are for rev sharing. We want to do that for our student-athletes. But this will allow us to have a little bit of structure around it, some guidelines around it, and we’ll be able to budget for it. We know what our numbers are, we know what our cap is. And obviously there’s still a lot to figure out. You still have Title IX implications, you have employment status implications … What happened Friday night, we were kind of anticipating that, hoping for a solution to that maybe more in early April. That’s what we had hoped. … It was a couple months later, but we finally got the settlement, and that’s what we were looking for.
