ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is glad to see the NCAA case settled, but it’s a ‘be careful what you wish for’ case with college sports.
Of the $2.77 billion expected to be paid in back damages to former athletes, the NCAA is expected to be responsible for 40% of the payout. The other 60% will come from a reduction in school distributions.
But, this opened up a new can of worms among the elite powers in college sports, according to Finebaum.
“As great a day as this is, and I think we all celebrate it, what’s really going to happen, though, is a caste system that nobody ever wanted or intended, but that’s what we got,” Finebaum said on First Take. “We essentially have two just — Power Two conferences, the SEC and the Big Ten, who are so far ahead of everyone else. You have other leagues and other schools going to Wall Street to try to stay in business. That’s happened in the league you played in, Jay, in the ACC. There’s a consequence for all of this.
“And what really does concern me, but is unavoidable, is that if you’re in the middle of a pack, if you’re at the bottom of a league, you have no chance. You didn’t have much of a chance as it was. But now in a sport like football, you’re out of business, so to speak and you cannot compete.”
The question then shifts to when this framework is put in place for college sports. Power conference schools will obviously need to opt-in or opt-out of the revenue-sharing portion.
Schools would disperse roughly $20 million annually to athletes. It remains unclear how Title IX would factor into payouts and how distribution would be split.
If everything goes smoothly this week and in the coming months, the soonest this structure would begin is the 2025-26 academic year.
The group of six defendants released a statement on the decision to sign off on the agreement for college sports. Attorneys for plaintiffs had set a hard deadline of Thursday for the NCAA and power conferences to agree to settlement terms.
“The five autonomy conferences and the NCAA agreeing to settlement terms is an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come,” the Power 5 commissioners and NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a joint statement. “This settlement is also a road map for college sports leaders and Congress to ensure this uniquely American institution can continue to provide unmatched opportunity for millions of students. All of Division I made today’s progress possible, and we all have work to do to implement the terms of the agreement as the legal process continues.
“We look forward to working with our various student-athlete leadership groups to write the next chapter of college sports.”
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