MADISON, Wis. — Lawmakers on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee met with athletes and athletics officials at UW-Madison on Friday to discuss a host of issues stemming from a pending legal settlement that promises to reshape college sports by letting schools pay their athletes directly.
Under the House Settlement, the NCAA and five major conferences are expected to pay roughly $2.8 billion to current and former college athletes who were barred from profiting off the use of their name, image and likeness. More importantly, the settlement will allow schools in major conferences to pay roughly $20 million a year to their athletes, starting next school year.
That’s raising questions like: Which athletes will get paid? What will happen to sports that don’t bring in revenue? And will men’s and women’s teams be compensated equally?
The NCAA is also worried about what paying athletes will mean for its ability to enforce rules like GPA requirements and limits on the number of seasons a college athlete can compete in. Those restrictions could run up against federal antitrust laws, which are meant to promote fair business competition, as well as a patchwork of state laws on name, image and likeness rights.
Watch: Members of Congress bring conversation on NCAA player pay to UW-Madison
“The thing we can’t solve for are some of the issues that have to do with our ability to have rules around eligibility, rules around academic performance,” said NCAA President Charlie Baker.
“There’s a lot of volatility right now in collegiate sports, and they’re looking for somebody to possibly change that,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Scott Fitzgerald said.
As chair of the House subcommittee that deals with antitrust issues, Fitzgerald is helping to lead the charge on new federal guidelines for college sports. He says conversations with athletes, coaches, and athletic directors are the start of that process.
“They don’t want to see some of these smaller teams and sports be eliminated or compromised in such a way that they’re unable to be part of the overall collection of what a university offers,” Fitzgerald said.
Meanwhile, the settlement allowing schools to pay their athletes could be just days away from being finalized. A federal judge in California on Monday gave parties one week to come back to her with revisions to address concerns about how the settlement will be implemented.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
