Power 5 Schools to Pay Athletes
Written By: Tex Greene
In a landmark settlement between the NCAA and its student-athletes, D1 schools in a Power 5 conference will be able to pay their student-athletes directly. This is a first in the history of college sports, and is a step beyond NIL in making sure athletes get paid for contributions to their respective university.
Numbers and Conditions
For athletes to be eligible for this deal, those who are suing the NCAA (House v. NCAA, Hubbard V. NCAA, Carter v. NCAA) must drop their cases.
The NCAA will pay more than $2.7 billion in damages over the next 10 years to current student-athletes, as well as past student-athletes dating back to 2016. Individual schools will be allowed to pay roughly $20 million to their athletes…how they split up that money is up to the school. To make sure student-athletes are getting the money that they are bringing in, schools will agree to revenue sharing plans with their athletes. None of these plans have been made yet (since the deal only happened recently), but the market value of an athlete and their star ranking when they were in high school may play a factor in how the money is shared.
While this deal has been agreed to, it still has yet to be officially approved by the judge presiding over this case, Claudia Wilken. It’s expected that she will sign off on the deal, and that revenue sharing will begin in the fall of 2025. Still, nothing has been signed yet, so we shouldn’t treat this as a “done deal.”
Impacts:
NIL deals for student-athletes will not be impacted by revenue sharing from these schools. However, as of right now, the only schools participating in revenue sharing are those in a Power 5 Conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC). Other D1 conferences (such as the Ivy League, Big Sky, SWAC, CAA, etc) aren’t eligible for the revenue-sharing program. It will be interesting to see if the schools in these conferences do eventually adopt revenue-sharing, and if it becomes mainstream. For now, however, those athletes are missing out.
If you’re an athlete who doesn’t want to miss out on capitalizing your NIL, however, then make sure you reach out to MK Hustle. We’ll make sure that you’re maximizing your earnings, and have opportunities to earn endorsements and build your brand.