Last week, the plea for fair compensation to all “student-athlete” participants, at all 11 major conferences, picked up significant momentum. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken decided upon a tentitive settlement that carries a pricetag of over $208 million.
Aside from being one of the largest settlements in the NCAA’s 100+ year history, this decision would provide what legal minds refer to as “precedent”, making any following suite against the NCAA in this manner, more likely to be won.
If approved by the court, the settlement would be paid out to all division-I football & basketball athletes since March, 2010. Estimates are, that on average, those athletes would receive payments between $3,000-$6,000 depending upon their universities COA (cost of attendance) policies.
This decision comes days before the tip of the NCAA tournament, the NCAA’s most profitable championship event. In case you forgot, a year ago, the NCAA signed an extension worth $8.8 BILLION with CBS/Turner, for exclusive NCAA tournament rights through 2032. This threw fuel on the fire that is the conversation of “student-athlete” compensation. A conversation that often includes radical
The veil of “amateur athletics” has been pulled and we should expect to continue to see these small steps forward towards rectifying one of the most antiquated systems in modern America.
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