A revenue-sharing model, in some ways percolating for 10 years, is soon to become the operating foundation for universities, athletic departments and student-athletes. Amateurism is long gone. What remains is big business. And big business is getting bigger.
Some landmark lawsuits challenging the NCAA’s limitations in areas of amateurism (O’Bannon v. NCAA, 2015) and compensation (Alston v. NCAA, 2021) were gateways to student-athletes being able to profit from their own name, image and likeness. Now the NIL era, which has paid athletes handsomely and even produced some undergraduate millionaires since 2021, is about to undergo a transformation.
If settlement of another lawsuit (House v. NCAA) soon becomes official, as expected, universities like UConn will be on the hook for back payments as part of the class action, as well as various other exorbitant costs. Revenue sharing calls for student-athletes to engage directly with institutions and those athletes will be paid, under contract, ostensibly for use of their name, image and likeness for marketing purposes.
But it’s the pay-for-play era, really, with rosters built on budgets and players compensate for their perceived value to a team. College sports are now essentially a collection of professional leagues lacking the structure or protection offered to the entity cutting the checks, in this case the institutions. There will be nothing in contracts, absent changes in federal law and/or clarification of employment status, about play or performance.Benedict’s cellphone sat on the table in front of him. Its tones alerted him to a new email or another text message.
“There are some realties you have to square with,” he continued. “But from a football standpoint, there are about 10 schools that have legitimately competed for a championship over the last decade. If you look at everything else, we’re having success across the board academically and competitively in ways that I think are truly outstanding. We’re going to continue to do our best, and so far our best has been pretty good. How will that play out in this new environment, long term? I’m not sure anyone has the crystal ball.”It’s more like the quicksand thing, where you’re just constantly sinking,” he said. “It’s just a matter of how quickly and how much rope you have, where you’re trying to pull yourself out. We’re doing better than most, at the end of the day. However you want to measure the output of the investment we’re making, I would put our results up against anybody’s.”During an hourlong conversation about college athletics — which is to say an hourlong conversation about something increasingly expensive and rapidly changing — it was suggested to UConn athletic director David Benedict that he’s holding an axe and chipping away at a giant sequoia.
