So a settlement has been reached in 3 lawsuits regarding student-athletes and compensation.

It will take months to sort it out but what is certain is that college sports will soon move in a new direction. To determine good or bad will take time.

No, College Sports Aren’t Over. But They’ll Never Be the Same.
A massive looming settlement from the NCAA and Power Five conferences acknowledges a reality that’s been long denied—this is a business, and always has been


WSJ
The NCAA and the nation’s five biggest conferences have agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle a host of antitrust claims.

For many years, big-time college sports stubbornly insisted they were special. Their product couldn’t be categorized as pure business—it was something precious, singular, not to be questioned or disrupted. As the outrageous money flowed, they asked us to look at the billion-dollar television contracts and eight-figure coaches flying private and not trust our own eyes. They wanted us to believe they were engaged in something more elevated than good old-fashioned capitalism.

Spoiler alert: This is a business, and always has been. You saw it, the players saw it, the courts started seeing it, and finally, the NCAA and its five biggest conferences (the “Power Five”) have come around, backs to the wall, revealing their intention to settle a string of cases designed to acknowledge and reward the obvious:

Which of course they are. You don’t pay a $2.8 billion settlement if it’s not about the money. College sports may have been buffered by nostalgia and tradition, and defenders had explanations to justify an unbalanced system—without us, there’d be no water polo!—but they couldn’t stop the public from smelling a moldy myth.

How do you hide all that money? The NCAA kept pointing to its monster and calling it a mouse. But the courts turned skeptical—the Supreme Court showed bipartisan skepticism, from justices who can’t agree on the day of the week—and the entire toothpick tower looked ready to collapse. And still might.

Now, with disaster looming, there’s an attempt to get on the level. Don’t ask me how it’s supposed to all shake out—I don’t think the NCAA itself knows. There’s a monetary settlement with past athletes, and a proposal here to share annual revenue with schools and let them dispense payments to athletes, with $20 million a reported figure. There’s no clarity on how that money should be distributed, if it needs to adhere to the equality standards of Title IX, and what happens if athletes win the right to collectively bargain and renegotiate.

The NCAA is settling here because it feared losing everything in court, and there’s still a gargantuan business to protect. They arrived here with their Power Five co-defendants, aka the “haves,” and this is a point of contention, too, as schools in smaller conferences worry who is really going to pay the price. The NCAA would like this settlement to be seen as proof of its good faith, inspiring Congress to strengthen antitrust protections, but there remain athletes battling to be recognized as employees, which could throw the whole landscape into a blender again.

It’s messy, because of course it’s messy. How do you level such a warped system? There will be casualties in nonrevenue sports, and likely women’s sports, but let’s not act like those parties hadn’t already been trampled over by conference realignments fruitful for football but a travel nightmare for everyone else. The same voices now agonizing about the end of college sports were the ones signing up to send the softball team across the country.

As for public reaction, it’s possible you’ve hit your limit. If NIL reform didn’t do it, and transfer portal madness didn’t do it, if geography-indifferent conference realignment didn’t do it, maybe this is the moment that sends you over the edge. It’s worth pointing out that there’s been no major fan exodus; interest remains robust. College sports have been lucky here. Despite an astonishing lack of foresight from the people in charge, the golden goose still flaps its tired wings. (Look at private equity’s effort to crash the party.)

This settlement is not foresight—it’s a crumbling behemoth’s humbled bet to stay in the game. It might feel like the aesthetic end of college sports, and it’s going to get chaotic, but the powers in charge are the ones who pushed the system to the brink. This is a business, their business, and at last they’re saying it out loud. The Great Surrender is here.

The N.C.A.A. Agreed to Pay Players. It Won’t Call Them Employees.
The argument is the organization’s attempt to maintain the last vestiges of its amateur model and to prevent college athletes from collectively bargaining.


NYT
The immediate takeaway from the landmark $2.8 billion settlement that the N.C.A.A. and the major athletic conferences accepted on Thursday was that it cut straight at the heart of the organization’s cherished model of amateurism: Schools can now pay their athletes directly.

But another bedrock principle remains intact, and maintaining it is likely to be a priority for the N.C.A.A.: that players who are paid by the universities are not employed by them, and therefore do not have the right to collectively bargain.

Congress must “establish that our athletes are not employees, but students seeking college degrees,” John I. Jenkins, the president of the University of Notre Dame, said in a statement when the agreement was announced.

It is the N.C.A.A.’s attempt to salvage the last vestiges of its amateur model, which for decades barred college athletes from being paid by schools or anyone else without risking their eligibility. That stance came under greater legal and political scrutiny in recent years, leading to the settlement, which still requires approval by a judge.

On its face, the argument may seem peculiar. Over the past decade, public pressure and a series of court rulings — not to mention the reality that college athletics generated billions of dollars in annual revenue and that athletes received none of it — have forced the N.C.A.A. to unravel restrictions on player compensation. A California law that made it illegal to block college athletes from name, image and licensing, or N.I.L., deals paved the way for athletes to seek compensation, some of them receiving seven figures annually.

At the same time, college sports have become an increasingly national enterprise. Regional rivalries and traditions have been tossed aside as schools have switched conference allegiances in pursuit of TV money. Individual conferences can now stretch from Palo Alto, Calif., to Chestnut Hill, Mass., meaning many athletes in a variety of sports are spending more time traveling to games and less time on campus.

“I don’t know how you wouldn’t call them employees at this point,” said Adam Hoffer, director of Excise Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation and a former professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. “The N.C.A.A. is going to look more and more like a professional league than it ever has before.”

But the stance fits into the N.C.A.A.’s long-running position that the classification of athletes as employees is a potential death knell for college sports. In February, the organization’s president, Charlie Baker, said Congress needed to enact legislation to protect the “95 percent” of college athletes who he contended would be harmed by a ruling that recognized them as employees. He said that many universities, those outside the so-called power conferences, lost money already on athletics and that spending more to pay players could lead some to eliminate teams.

A lot remains unclear about the settlement, which arose from an antitrust lawsuit. If a federal judge in California approves it, schools will decide how to divide up the revenue they set aside for sharing with athletes — as much as $20 million.

By settling, the N.C.A.A. is banking on receiving an antitrust exemption from Congress, which would protect it from further lawsuits over compensation that is says would hurt its ability to make its own rules. In recent years, the organization has spent millions lobbying the government to create an antitrust exemption similar to the one that professional baseball enjoys.

The settlement is also an N.C.A.A. attempt to cap the amount of money its institutions will have to pay athletes, said William W. Berry III, a professor of law at the University of Mississippi who has studied the issue of player compensation in college athletics. Under the formula laid out by the plaintiffs in the case, the settlement would pay players around 22 percent of future revenue. Mr. Berry noted that was much lower than the shares paid to players in professional leagues like National Football League and the National Basketball Association.

“What they’ve done with the settlement is they’re saying, ‘We’re going to share some of the revenue with you,’” Mr. Berry said, adding that a loss in court could have funneled even more money to the players and been financially ruinous for the N.C.A.A.

rs on the Dartmouth men’s basketball team had the right to unionize and should be considered employees. Dartmouth is appealing the decision. At the University of Southern California, football and basketball players are seeking the right to unionize and to be classified as employees. The settlement could bolster those arguments.

Image
A basketball player tries to drive past a defender toward the hoop.
Jaren Johnson handling the ball for the Dartmouth men’s basketball team, which is trying to unionize.Credit...Adam Gray/Getty Images
“One of the hallmarks of employment is you get compensated for your services,” said Matthew Mitten, a professor of law at Marquette University and the executive director of the National Sports Law Institute.

But the settlement, by itself, is unlikely to bring about a sweeping push for unionization in college athletics. Dartmouth is a small, private school in New Hampshire, which has laws favorable to unionizing. Many football powerhouses, like the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia, are in right-to-work states, where unionization efforts face stiff legal and political roadblocks.

And compensation without unionization might be the preferred route for some athletes at the biggest revenue-generating schools.

“I think it’s pretty unlikely that the athletes at the Power Four schools are going to want to unionize,” Mr. Mitten said, referring to the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern Conferences.

But the N.C.A.A. is facing a sea change, even if its athletes aren’t called employees.

“The fact that schools will likely be required to pay these players means the existing business model has to change,” Mr. Hoffer said.

Jaden Rashada alleges ‘false promises’ by Florida coach Billy Napier, others in lawsuit


NYT
Former Florida quarterback signee Jaden Rashada is suing Gators coach Billy Napier, a former UF staffer and a major university booster, alleging they made “false and fraudulent promises” to induce Rashada to sign with the program in 2022.

Rashada initially committed to Miami in June 2022, prior to his senior year of high school, but flipped to Florida five months later upon signing a staggering four-year, $13.85 million contract with the Gator Collective, a now-defunct organization that brokered name, image and likeness (NIL) deals for Florida athletes.

Weeks later, however, the collective terminated his deal before it was to pay him a scheduled $500,000 signing bonus. In doing so, Rashada claims, he lost a $9.5 million deal he had in place with a Miami mega-booster.

The suit alleges the co-defendants continued making financial promises to entice Rashada to sign in December, which he did shortly after “Coach Napier himself vouch(ed) that UF alumni were good on their promise that Jaden would receive $1 million if he signed with UF on National Signing Day.”

The unusual NIL bidding war between Florida and Miami boosters for Rashada, as detailed by The Athletic in a story last year, came amid the emergence of school-specific NIL collectives — independent organizations that provide monetary NIL opportunities for college athletes predominantly by fundraising money from donors, fans and boosters. Less than two years later, collectives are ubiquitous and play a key role in college football recruiting.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, alleges six counts of fraud, negligence and tortious interference against Napier; a former football staff member, Marcus Castro-Walker, who served as the football program’s director of NIL; Florida mega-booster Hugh Hathcock; and an automotive business of Hathcock’s. Florida fired Castro-Walker on Feb. 1, shortly after The Athletic reported he was one of the subjects of a since-paused NCAA investigation into Rashada’s recruitment.

“We do not comment on ongoing litigation, and neither the University Athletic Association nor the University are named in the complaint. The UAA will provide for Coach Napier’s personal counsel, and we will direct all questions to those representatives,” said Florida athletics spokesperson Steve McClain in a statement.

The suit seeks damages “exceed(ing) the sum or value of $10 million.”

“Sadly, this type of fraud is becoming more commonplace in the Wild West that is today’s college NIL landscape,” said Rusty Hardin, an attorney representing Rashada. “Wealthy alumni, consumed by their schools’ athletic programs, are taking advantage of young people by offering them life-changing sums of money, only to renege on their commitments. As the first scholar-athlete to take a stand against this egregious behavior, Jaden seeks to hold these defendants accountable for their actions and to expose their as-yet unchecked abuse of power.”

Rashada, who was released from his Florida letter of intent in January 2023, eventually signed with Arizona State, where he started the Sun Devils’ 2023 season-opener as a freshman. He recently announced his decision to transfer to Georgia, a rival of Florida’s. Napier avoided specifics when asked about Rashada’s departure at the time, but spoke broadly about NIL to the Associated Press, saying, ” I think the reality is the current structure of NIL with third parties being involved, with agents being involved, with marketing representatives, with lawyers, with collectives, (is) very fluid, and I think a very unique dynamic.”

Hardin, who has represented high-profile sports figures like Roger Clemens, Adrian Peterson and Deshaun Watson, said he was retained by the family in January 2023 but had held off filing a suit in hopes the NCAA’s investigation into Florida and Miami’s recruitment of Rashada would be resolved.

“Jaden was indecisive (about suing) for a while,” Hardin said. “He likes Napier personally. But he became aware of more and more players — maybe not at this kind of level, with this much money being offered — that were having the same experience.”

The suit alleges that Hathcock, a wealthy Florida benefactor, began pursuing Rashada around the same time Rashada committed to Miami, verbally offering an $11 million NIL deal to pick the Gators instead of the Hurricanes. Some media outlets reported that Rashada had a $9.5 million deal in place with a Miami booster. By October, Hathcock had sweetened the deal by nearly $3 million to get Rashada to flip, according to the suit. The suit cites an Oct. 27 text from Castro-Walker to one of the player’s NIL agents, Jackson Zager, stating: “You already know what we need to do over the next few days!! Get us the QB.”

The suit claims Hathcock planned to fund the eventual $13.85 million offer partially through his business, Velocity Automotive, which is named as a co-defendant, but the contract offer itself came from the Gator Collective.

The suit cites several texts between Eddie Rojas, CEO of the Gator Collective, and Zager, including: “Tell Jaden we look forward to setting him up for life. Need to set up his brokerage accounts asap. Dude is rich and we just got started.” As well as: “We are going to have to dodge the freaks in Miami[.] I hate Miami. This is going to be fun to watch.”

Rashada publicly announced his flip from Miami to Florida on Nov. 10, 2022.

NCAA rules prohibit schools from using NIL money as a recruiting inducement, and at the time of these events, boosters and NIL collectives were prohibited from discussing financial terms with recruits. However, a judge’s preliminary injunction in March prohibited the NCAA from enforcing those rules. The NCAA subsequently paused investigations like the one into Florida.

A[h]ccording to the suit, over the next several weeks, various individuals connected to Hathcock, including Castro-Walker, assured Rashada’s representatives that Hathcock would make the $500,000 payment. Instead, the collective terminated the agreement on Dec. 6. The next day, Castro-Walker told the agents that Hathcock still planned to pay the $13.85 million, but it would come from his own announced collective, called the Gator Guard.

As the Dec. 21 early signing period approached, the suit alleges that Jaden asked his father, Harlen, and his agents, “Can I sign?” to which Zager replied: “Not yet.” Castro-Walker “called Harlen to give assurance that Jaden would receive $500,000 and all promised payments going forward.”

Napier’s scheduled National Signing Day news conference was delayed while Rashada continued to hold out. Around that time is when Napier allegedly contacted Harlen, who relayed to Rashada’s agents: “Coach Napier said [Hathcock’s] on a plane and that he will wire 1 Mil. He wants the paper work and I’m sending it if you are good.”

The suit says Jaden signed less than an hour after that conversation.

According to the suit, the only money Rashada received from the Florida camp was a $150,000 wire transfer from Hathcock so that “Jaden could avoid possible litigation with Miami booster John Ruiz, who was seeking repayment from the $9.5 million NIL deal after Jaden flipped his commitment from Miami to UF.”

The Athletic’s February 2023 story said that Rashada had already received “about $125,000” from Ruiz’s company, LifeWallet. Ruiz told The Athletic at the time that “there was no agreement between Rashada and LifeWallet for $9.5 million or nothing even remotely close to that.”

“That’s not true,” said Hardin. “He can say there’s no written contract, but oral contracts are the same thing.” (Oral contracts are enforceable in the state of Florida.)

Ruiz released the following statement to The Athletic Tuesday morning: “LifeWallet nor John H. Ruiz ever had any deal with Rashada that amounted to 9.5 million dollars. LifeWallet had a very small deal with Rashada while he was a (high) school student in California. Rashada and his father are stand up individuals. To date, I personally have a very good relationship with both. They both know we dealt with them honestly and fairly as we have always done with all NIL players. LifeWallet has a track record of complying with all of its NIL deals. LifeWallet was repaid by those controlling the Gators fundraising efforts. While I have my own view of this matter, at this point the interests of this young man should be the focus.”

Having previously committed to or signed with three schools, Miami, Florida, and Arizona State, Rashada is expected to report to Georgia for summer workouts next month.

“Similarly to his decision to attend Arizona State, Jaden’s decision to attend Georgia this year was not in response to any promises, assurances, or offers connected to NIL money,” the suit says. “He had learned his lesson.”

Castro-Walker did not immediately return calls and text messages for comment. When The Athletic contacted Velocity Automotive seeking comment from Hathcock, an employee said Hathcock sold the company.

I DGAF!

BLM ruined sports forever with me. The Trannies imploded Title IVX. It's a $hitshow!

EXCEPT for Hockey and Golf....they didn't take a knee. I took a walk!

BOOOHOOOOOHOOOO, how will they get by without me spending my time glued to a tv caring about who wins/loses?