On June 6, Judge Claudia Wilken announced the long-awaited settlement in the NCAA v. House court case, which has been ongoing for more than a decade. The ruling allowed colleges to pay athletes directly, a monumental ruling that will forever change collegiate athletics as we see it. The 2021 ruling by the United States Supreme Court made it possible for college athletes to be viewed more as entertainment and less as an educational endeavor.
The settlement will allow colleges to pay athletes a certain amount, with the current cap set at $20.5 million, which will increase over the ten-year agreement. This was big news for the larger schools in the nation and the Power 4 conferences, but it is a blow to mid-major schools, which will likely see top talent leave for big money to join a major conference program.
In New Jersey, we have seven Division 1 programs, with Rutgers being the only school in a Power 4 conference. As a member of the Big Ten Conference, Rutgers should have no problem accumulating funds to join the new era in college sports, especially when it begins receiving its full revenue share of conference funds in 2027. However, it will be tougher for the other six schools, as they all face different situations.
As an Ivy League institution, Princeton University offers scholarships to athletes, as academics are the primary focus in attracting and retaining talent to attend the school. The new world of NILs and paying players is something that Princeton will not have to consider. Although a lawsuit was filed against the Ivy League in 2023 by two former Brown players regarding payments to athletes, it was dismissed in 2024.
The remaining five schools in Garden State (FDU, Monmouth, NJIT, Rider, and Saint Peter’s) have seen college athletics become a numbers game to keep up with the big schools nationwide. Even with the recent successes in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament by Saint Peter’s (an Elite Eight appearance in 2022) and FDU (an upset of the Number 1 seed Purdue in 2023), and significant investments in facilities by all five institutions, will that be enough to attract and retain top talent for four years?
The Talent Drain of Low To Mid-Majors
The ability of schools to now pay players will create a system where the Power 4 conferences will receive the best talent from those schools in the Group of 5 conferences in football (excluding FCS programs, where a significant amount of talent resides) and other conferences in basketball. The days of players staying with smaller institutions for the duration of their college eligibility will be a thing of the past, as major schools will offer substantial financial incentives to those players worthy of it, and smaller institutions will serve as feeder schools to larger schools.
Consider this: a highly touted recruit chooses School A in the Missouri Valley Conference and spurns an offer from the Big Ten Conference. The recruit went on to have a fantastic freshman season, garnering All-Conference honors and leading the team to a conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
After the season, the now seasoned college athlete is being offered big money to attend three schools: one is the same school in the Big Ten that initially offered them a scholarship, and two are in the ACC. What is the likelihood of the player staying in the Missouri Valley Conference, being a big fish in a little pond, or taking their talents to a Power conference where more eyes will be on them and more of an apparatus to get their stock even higher, and possibly be drafted to the pros?
Unfortunately, everyone knows the answer to that question. They will attend the bigger school with the “bag of cash” because of what that new program represents. Prestige, status and the ability to create a brand and a name for themselves. And this is not just a basketball and football story. This is also a situation similar to softball or gymnastics. Do you want to do the floor exercise for Boston University or under the bright lights of LSU in a 10,000-seat arena?
Monmouth Director of Athletics Jennifer Sansevero spoke with ONNJ Sports about her experiences in this new era of college athletics, offering a unique perspective. Abdi Bashir Jr. was a guard for the Hawks for two years, capping off his time in West Long Branch with a super sophomore campaign, averaging 20.1 points and shooting 39 percent from beyond the arc last season. He transferred to Kansas State after the season, and Sansevero sees this example as a positive for the program.
“I think there has been a negative feeling about mid-majors in this environment,” said Sansevero, who has been leading the Monmouth program since February 2024 after being named interim Director in July 2023. “Abdi had an opportunity to make seven figures with Kansas State and Coach (King) Rice was understanding of the opportunity he had. To have Abdi come here, develop here and move on to another program after becoming a focal point for us is a plus for Monmouth. You can come here, develop your skills at a great school and have the opportunity down the line at a bigger school.”
Ultimately, it will be about how the student-athletes feel about these schools, and it can’t come down to money.
“At the mid-major level, we still need to be transformational. Kids are gonna want to come in and want to get their degree, especially at my school. They will want to really work hard academically,” said NJIT Vice President/Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan to ONNJ Sports. “At the higher level, they’ve made it about the money. We’re still about the kid. Our level it is about the culture.”
How Much Do Players Cost?
Payments to players were always inevitable, but the question has always been how much players deserve and how much schools/third parties are willing to pay.
NiJaree Canady, a Texas Tech softball player, signed a $1 million NIL deal with the Matador Club, a collective for the university. That, along with other major NIL deals for players in various sports, creates a sense of market volatility regarding the amount players should receive and the actual value of these athletes.
“The market volatility in college sports now creates an issue where you have to be on top of how much is being spent but also how much a player is worth. Sometimes the number changes based on what is going on around the country,” said Sansevero.
Is a quarterback at Penn State worth $3 million, but a quarterback at Sam Houston State worth $10,000, despite having the exact numbers, measurables, and style of play? Is Sam Houston State forced to pay its entire athletics budget to keep its quarterback from moving on to a Power 4 school? These are the questions being asked in schools at the moment.
Governmental Assistance in Fixing the Rules
The NCAA has almost seemed either unmoved or caught flat-footed in the new landscape of college athletics. With that said, there has been much lobbying to get Congress and the President to help put together a list of rules and guidelines for this world, with the President signing an Executive Order in July that included a few broad strokes, including:
- Prohibiting third parties from engaging in direct “pay-for-play” payments to athletes.
- Protections for scholarships in non-revenue sports that require schools to maintain or increase scholarship funding for such sports. This is to protect Olympic sports and women’s sports from potential funding cuts.
- A clarification from the National Labor Relations Board on the employment status of athletes
- Protections for the NCAA from lawsuits by athletes.
The final two points are essential. Over the last few years, players from multiple schools have attempted to unionize, claiming that they are employees of the schools they attended. The NCAA has fought this, saying that they are “student-athletes” and their amateur status prevents them from unionizing. This also relates to the final point of the EO, which protects the NCAA from lawsuits by current and former athletes. The entire court case, and ultimately the result, all started with Ed O’Bannon suing the NCAA in 2015 for the right to name, image, and likeness, and it has all snowballed since.
Kaplan believes that congressional help is needed to provide some guardrails for all of this.
“The reason why 100% Congress as has to get involved is because there are currently 38 states with different rules that literally 100% contradict the NCAA rules, almost where it says if you follow the NCAA rules, your’sre breaking the state rule. The only way to coordinate these state rukes is through federal governing through Congress.”
Are We Near The End?
With the House settlement and subsequent other lawsuits coming to an end, the story is nearing its conclusion. I have been covering this story since the start of the O’Bannon case and the 10-year journey has been interesting. However, we have now reached a point where things are settling down, for the time being.
Is this story that I have written about since I was in my 20s finally at its climax?
“I wish I can say yes and stop talking to you right now but we live in a very litigious society, so you never know,” said Sansevero.
“As you saw there’s already a dozen lawsuits out there against the settlement, whether it be about Title IX or employment,” said Kaplan. “There’s still a lot of moving parts and still a lot of people suing and there’s still a lot of lawsuits unsettled.”
Ultimately, this upheaval will persist. Student-athletes can now be paid by their schools directly, but with just $20.5 million cap, how long before a school goes over budget? Which school will be the first to find a workaround to exceed that total? How much more tampering will continue, as was accused by North Carolina Central head football coach Trei Oliver against Virginia Tech? And which bill in Congress will see the light of day: the one favoring the NCAA or the one being developed in the Senate that seems more pro-player?
Players should have always received some compensation for their participation in college athletics. The idea of amateurism was great for Knute Rockne, but it is not suitable for today’s college athlete, regardless of the sport, when considering the substantial financial rewards. From ticket sales, TV deals, and sponsorships, there is more than enough money to be distributed fairly. There do need to be guidelines on how and why, as it is currently the Wild West, as evidenced by Nico Iamaleava’s saga in Tennessee from the spring.
It is a battle of the haves and have-nots in college sports, and unfortunately, mid-major schools stand to lose the most. The Division I schools in New Jersey are working to keep up with the changing landscape. They are succeeding as evidenced by Monmouth’s ascension in the CAA in many sports, NJIT’s exceptional facilities in the heart of Newark, Rider’s proposed arena upgrades, and the success of Saint Peter’s and FDU in the NCAA Tournament. They are doing what they can to stay in the game.
As a Monmouth alum, I went to school down the shore and saw Miles Austin slice through the NEC and men’s basketball take it to Villanova in the NCAA Tournament in a tough loss. I didn’t need to attend Rutgers or USC to see great teams; I had them at Kessler Field and Boylan Gymnasium. Those memories are ingrained in many alums from schools like Monmouth. These schools and others like them are the backbone of college sports, and they should not be forgotten in this era of salary caps and NIL deals.
