{"id":202,"date":"2023-12-09T13:04:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T17:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/?p=202"},"modified":"2025-07-25T12:53:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:53:34","slug":"ncaa-proposes-some-schools-directly-compensate-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/2023\/12\/09\/ncaa-proposes-some-schools-directly-compensate-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Proposes (Some) Schools Directly Compensate Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Drew T. Dorner and Zach McCormack<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This week, NCAA President Charlie Baker sent a letter to Division I member schools proposing the creation of a new subdivision in which the institutions with the wealthiest athletic programs could directly pay student-athletes for their name, image, and likeness.\u00a0 If accepted, schools in this subdivision\u2014which would likely include institutions like the University of Texas, Ohio State, the University of Georgia, and the like\u2014would have the flexibility to set their own recruiting, roster, transfer, and NIL rules.\u00a0 The NCAA\u2019s letter may be a step toward a \u201csuper league\u201d that some commentators<\/a> believe is inevitable.<\/p>\n

The letter\u2019s overarching theme is that a single set of rules governing all Division I schools is no longer practicable.\u00a0 Since 2021, the year the NCAA amended its transfer portal rule and the Supreme Court decided NCAA v. Alston<\/em>, 141 S. Ct. 2141 (2021), the law and economics underlying college athletics have become more and more unsettled, and the legality and practicality of the NCAA\u2019s model has come under increased scrutiny.\u00a0 The letter signals the NCAA\u2019s willingness to consider major policy changes.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Baker acknowledged the widening financial gap between the Division I schools with the highest-funded athletic programs and other competitors, which has only grown since the Alston<\/em> ruling. \u00a0To counteract this disparity, Baker proposed three changes for consideration of the NCAA\u2019s affiliates.<\/p>\n

The first suggested change is to create the possibility for all Division I colleges to discretionarily offer \u201cenhanced educational benefits\u201d to athletes. Baker did not expand upon the meaning of \u201cenhanced educational benefits\u201d or whether these are novel benefits. The second proposal are optional rule changes for Division I institutions to enter into NIL licensing opportunities with athletes. \u00a0Again, Baker did not elaborate on this suggestion. \u00a0Baker did, however, deem these two proposals as beneficial to gender equality, considering schools will need to follow gender regulations when contemplating investments in their athletic programs.<\/p>\n

As noted above, the final, and most groundbreaking suggestion, is to create a subdivision allowing high revenue institutions to directly compensate athletes \u201c[w]ithin the framework of Title IX.\u201d Members of this subdivision would invest at least $30,000.00 per year into an \u201cenhanced educational trust fund\u201d for half, or greater, of the school\u2019s student-athletes, and also commit to creating rules that differ from the rules affecting all other Division I institutions.<\/p>\n

The letter is unclear as to whether the NCAA will abandon efforts to lobby for federal NIL legislation, and there is always the possibility that state governments will take their own actions in response to the NCAA.\u00a0 As ever, the interplay between NCAA policies and state\/federal law is dynamic, leaving interested parties with more questions than answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Drew T. Dorner and Zach McCormack This week, NCAA President Charlie Baker sent a letter to Division I member schools proposing the creation of a new subdivision in which the institutions with the wealthiest athletic programs could directly pay student-athletes for their name, image, and likeness.\u00a0 If accepted, schools in this subdivision\u2014which would likely … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “NCAA Proposes (Some) Schools Directly Compensate Athletes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":572,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[339],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"authors":[{"term_id":339,"user_id":572,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dtdorner","display_name":"Drew T. Dorner","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2022\/07\/dornerdrew-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/572"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}