NCAA athlete-pay settlement could mean 6-figure paychecks for top college players

Thousands of student athletes – both past and present – ​​are in line to receive their share of a $2.8 billion settlement settlement. an antitrust lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the five largest conferences in the country. The challenge now will be to decide how much each player will receive and why.

The complaint, filed in Northern California in 2020, by former Arizona State swimmer Grant House and former Oregon and current Texas Christian University basketball player Sedona Prince, accused the NCAA, along with the five richest conferences, of preventing wrongfully allowed athletes to earn endorsement money based on their name, image and likeness or NILs.

The finer details still need to be ironed out, but the NCAA settlement calls for the league and conferences to pay $2.77 billion over 10 years to more than 14,000 former and current college athletes who claim the compensation rules now defunct prevented them from making money from endorsement and sponsorship deals dating back to 2016.

The settlement still needs to be approved by the federal judge overseeing the case, and challenges could arise. But if the deal holds, it would mark the beginning of a new era in college sports, where players are paid more like professionals and schools can compete for talent through direct payments.

The NCAA could go one of two ways: pass along a portion of the funds to colleges across the country and have someone on campus determine the size of the payments, or hire an outside entity tasked with handling the logistics, said Tim Derdenger, who teaches the sports marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In the latter case, the NCAA will have to decide whether all athletes should receive the same amount of money or whether some will receive more than others because of how well they played, experts said.

“If the funds go to the university, I can imagine each player will receive a lump sum,” Derdenger said. “Is this merit-based or market-based? Absolutely not. But I’m an economist, so I would allocate these funds based on your success during the competition.”

The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

If individual payout amounts are determined by other measures, college basketball and football players will likely receive the bulk of the settlement, experts told CBS MoneyWatch. This is because basketball and football games tend to generate the most revenue for a university’s athletic department. And in that scenario, the starting quarterbacks or point guards would get the highest pay, Derdenger said.

“I can definitely see someone like Caleb Williams getting a check for $100,000, if not more,” he said, referring to the University of Southern California quarterback who was recently drafted into the NFL.

Members of the school golf, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer and volleyball teams will also receive payments, but they likely won’t reach the six-figure range because those sports don’t generate revenue, Derdenger said.

The NCAA should take a page out of European soccer’s book and adopt a pay formula that combines players receiving an equal share with the rewards of those playing the most popular sports, said Patrick Rishe, a sports business professor at Washington University in St. Louis. .

“For example, the English Premiere League allocates 50% of its national media revenue to all teams evenly, but then 25% is allocated based on team performance and 25% is allocated based on popularity,” he said. . “Perhaps a hybrid model based on a combination of equity, performance and popularity is the appropriate path.”

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.