On October 7, 2024, Judge Claudia Wilken of the United States District Court of Northern California gave preliminary approval in a settlement in which former NCAA athletes Grant House and Sedona Price sued the NCAA for antitrust violations by restricting NIL earnings and revenue sharing. House and Price argued in the suit that NCAA athletes could not receive fair market value for their name, image, and likeness. The final ruling and the details of the case are scheduled to come down on April 7. Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart says it could be a historical and defining day in college athletics.
“It could be one of the most legendary moments in all of college sports with what’s coming up on this ruling and how people are going to try to manipulate a cap when all we’re trying to do is make for competitive balance,” Smart said. “It’s really unfortunate that I don’t know if competitive balance is going to come out of it. I don’t know if the kids win in this model that we currently have, if they win long-term.”
The initial ruling allowed a framework where each power conference could share $20.5 million in revenue with each of its universities. Those universities would then decide how that money is divided among their sports programs. Football is suspected to get roughly 80% of that allotment each year, and the amount is supposed to increase by 4% annually. Also, football teams would be limited to a cap of 105 players, likely resulting in many walk-ons being cut.
“I think everybody’s got to take a big pause right now and say, ‘Deep breath,’” said Kirby Smart about the House vs. NCAA settlement. “Because what’s going on in basketball right now is crazy. We don’t know everything that’s going to come out with April 7 – which might be April 7, might be the settlement date where we get a lot more information. But everybody’s on pins and needles because we don’t know exactly what’s going to come out of this. What I do know is we’re going to continue to recruit people who love football, who are passionate about football and don’t put money as the No. 1 answer. Like, I’ve never met a really good player that that’s all they care about. The 105 number, the NIL number, ‘What’s the cap number? What is this going to be?’”
While there may soon be structure and clarity to the public money side of things that is shared with schools and athletes, the overall landscape of NIL remains a mess. Smart lamented the fact that agents are basically promoting their players as up for grabs before the transfer portal windows open and its basically perpetual free agency and perpetual tampering. Not a sustainable model.
“There’s stuff going on right now, guys, in college football, there are people reaching out to have a Zoom call and present all the players they represent that are (currently) on teams, including our teams,” Smart shared. “And they want to invite people to the Zooms so they can watch and see who’s going in the portal or shopping, who’s in the portal before the portal. ‘Do you want to get on a Zoom and look at all these players?’ What if some of them are mine?”