Major college athletics departments have been preparing for the new era of revenue sharing that is set to be implemented on July 1 for quite a long time, but there remains one teeny tiny problem: there’s still been no resolution to the House v. NCAA case that this whole thing rides on.
A settlement in the case didn’t come as expected last month. There is a lot of trepidation among administrators right now, since they’ve built an entire, er, house, if you will, around the foundation that settlement represents.
But perhaps most pertinent, numerous programs have signed revenue-sharing deals with college athletes that are contingent on the House settlement’s approval. The NCAA announced it will eliminate 150 rules to allow schools to pay athletes directly, contingent on approval. Rosters have been purged and employees have been laid off to prepare for the new financial realities. The past 12 months have all been spent preparing for this moment.
It’s probably fine. The judge in this case being a little extra deliberate is not out of character, as the above-linked article outlines, and further, the schools have no choice but to agree to whatever amendments to the settlement the judge wants. They’re already sweating, and they need this done.
While it would be amusing if the settlement remained unapproved come July 1, that probably wouldn’t be good for anybody, the athletes especially. We’ve had enough chaos in college sports over the last five years, I think.