Presidential Election's Impact on College Sports, College Football Fans Footing the Bill for Colleges + ICYMI | Newsletter #286

Nov 07, 2024

Today’s Thursday newsletter includes highlights from this week, important news from last week, and what to watch for.

Keep up to date on all of our newsletters and content by checking out past Optimum Sports Consulting Newsletters, and following us on Twitter!

Recapping Major News This Week:

Donald Trump’s win in the presidential election may impact the future of student-athletes being deemed employees. Jennifer Abruzzo’s memo in 2021 set the tone that the NLRB was in favor of athlete employment. There was a clear push for an athletic team to go through the NLRB process when the Biden Administration was still in office.
With Senator Cruz winning his seat, he will chair the Senate Commerce Committee, which controls possible college sports legislation
Republicans and Democrats have fought over what items should be included in bills addressing college sports, specifically whether athletes should earn a share of revenue or be classified as employees. Democrats have leaned toward a split of revenue and health and safety assurances, while some Republican-led bills include language making sure athletes would not be classified as employees.
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Much like the salaries of professional athletes, the money required to recruit top talent in college football has quickly risen.
Universities and boosters have quickly grown tired of bleeding money for their efforts to win and are looking for ways to recuperate their money.
Colleges have been open to their fans about increasing ticket prices as well as increases in tuition. Tennessee added a “talent fee” to the price of their tickets, and Clemson added an “athletic surcharge” to their students’ tuition, a $150 fee per semester.
College athletics continues to mirror the professional landscape with the salaries that student-athletes are now receiving.
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Georgia football coach Kirby Smart highlighted the importance of financial education in NIL era - LINK
A Memphis men’s basketball player announces transfer amid uncertainty regarding NIL deal - LINK
High school athlete AJ Dybantsa signs $4 million NIL deal with Nike - LINK
Alabama is at risk of losing five-star wide receiver with a $449,000 NIL valuation - LINK

House Settlement Hurting Many Olympic Athletes

As a result of the House settlement, college athletes in olympic sports are losing some of their roster spots
Schools have eliminated roster spots and, for some, scholarship offers that they were once promised. Meanwhile, several college athletes have been notified that they are no longer part of their teams.
While the NCAA and power conferences agreed to expand upon scholarships, they also imposed roster limits for sports as part of the House settlement. While unlimited scholarships is good in theory, the difference between new roster limits and current rosters (for some sports) are drastic. For example, the new limit for cross country teams is 17, while many cross country teams actually keep more than 30 runners on a roster.
As a result of (1) roster limits, (2) redistribution of revenue and (3) balancing men and women opportunities in compliance with Title IX, the 68 power conference schools are expected to eliminate at least 3,000 roster positions. Many of these athletes being “walk-ons” - college athletes that join teams without any scholarship money.
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Earlier this week, reports came in that the Big 12 circulated a name, image and likeness agreement template to its schools, spelling out terms, services, payments and the timing of payments to athletes. Although there is still time for changes to be made to the template, it was created to allow each school to format it related to its varying needs.
Schools around the country are starting to prepare for the changes that will be ushered in with a settlement agreement. Questions still remain on how compensation will be given to athletes, including whether payments and scholarship will remain separate or become commingled.
It is clear that with this template, the Big 12 Conference is trying to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how to handle the potential settlement agreement. We may see more schools or more conferences following suit and trying to prepare as best they can for the changes that are coming to the college landscape.

Keep up to date on all of our newsletters and content by checking out past Optimum Sports Consulting Newsletters, and following us on Twitter!