The NCAA’s House settlement era launched on Tuesday, with athletic programs across the country free to start paying millions to their athletes in the biggest change in the history of college athletics.
It’s the death of the NCAA’s longstanding amateur model, certain to cause headaches and disputes among powerhouse and small-time programs alike. Scattered among them, however, is a handful of schools that have decided to wait it out at least a year to see how things develop, including legal risks and Title IX concerns.
Call them the opt-outs.
The Ivy League removed itself from the conversation early, saying in January its schools — which do not award athletic scholarships — will not participate. Military rules bar Navy, Air Force, and Army from compensating athletes. But alongside the academies are others choosing to watch the settlement unfold from the sidelines during year one.
The deadline for schools to opt out was Monday. There were very few announcements. Among them: Nebraska-Omaha and Montana.
“Although we welcome the approval and intent of the settlement, our mission remains to protect the interests of our current student-athletes while honoring UNO’s core values as we transition to a new era,” the university wrote in a statement.
Omaha cited Title IX compliance as a reason, which according to attorney Mit Winter should be a legitimate concern for universities opting in.
“A lot of people think Title IX doesn’t mandate that the rev-share dollars be paid out the same way that athletic scholarships have to be paid out, which is proportional to the male-female student population,” Winter told The Associated Press. “Most P4 schools, 90 to 95% of their $20.5 million are going to go to male athletes — football and basketball in most cases.”
Another noteworthy opt-out is Montana, whose football team consistently competes at a high level. Athletic director Kent Haslam informed multiple outlets of the university’s decision.
Montana will save revenue-sharing dollars as a result, but opting out could come with a hefty price. Roughly three hours down the road, Montana’s arch-rival, Montana State, has opted in.
“It makes it much harder to compete in recruiting if schools you’re competing against are able to pay their athletes up to $20.5 million and you’re not able to pay them anything,” Winter said. “In my view, Montana State just gave themselves a huge advantage in recruiting over Montana.”
Plenty of opt-ins won’t even scratch the $20.5 million cap. But regardless of finances, most schools have chosen to partake in the settlement to stay competitive in an evolving college sports landscape.
“There are a lot of schools that feel the obligation to opt in to remain competitive. I do think it offers a bit more structure for some of those larger schools that have been spending a lot of time trying to build a collective and raise money so that they could keep their best athletes. And then there are other schools that just aren’t in the same category. From a dollars and cents perspective, it just doesn’t make sense across the board,” attorney Michael Rueda said.
With limited resources and difficulties adapting to name, image and likeness ventures, Rueda explained that smaller schools face significant challenges against deep-pocketed universities.
“I would envision that a lot of those schools can’t even fathom how to make this jump yet,” Rueda said. “They were struggling even before this trying to understand how institutional NIL worked. They probably were just coming to terms with how some of that stuff might have been feasible for them, and now you’re completely changing the game, and so, they have to get up to speed and figure out what this looks like for a school of that size with limited resources, budget staff and all that.”
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AP sports writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
