NCAA vs the world lawsuits

[Professor Chaos]

IANAL, but this is what I think the NCAA's position on this is.
They're a defendant of suit claiming damages from the NCAA's policy of not allowing NIL payments. For various reasons the NCAA has decided to settle.
NIL is generally believed to affect the revenue sports of P5 football and MBB more than anything else. That's where the vast bulk of the damages originated.
NCAA directly makes very little money from P5 FB due to how the bowl/CFP post-season is set up.
NCAA makes a huge percentage of its revenue from March Madness. The damages for past behavior are going to be paid from funds they gave to conferences but should have given to elite athletes.
Their plan to pay damages is to reduce payments in proportion to what was paid out. It's generally believed non-power conferences are heavily subsidized by these tourney credits compared with their performance and media draw.

That means the little guys pushing back is playing with fire. If we insist we aren't that valuable, we might get our payments cut even more.

I *think* we don't get a say on if the NCAA settles the House lawsuit. I *think* we do have enough votes to veto the payment plan. That would create a very interesting scenario where the NCAA owes $2.7B but doesn't have a way to pay it.

I don't agree with the premise that the money from the NCAA tournament media deal would've been that much less had players been getting NIL money - for the P4 schools that money is a pretty small percent of their athletic revenue. They get much more from their own conference media deals, ticket sales, and donations and that's the kind of money that would've been going to NIL deals for players instead. So the P4 and the NCAA want to take the entire chunk owed out of the pool that is shared between all the D1 schools instead of out of the pool that benefitted the most from not having to worry about paying for NIL of the athletes - they can go fuck themselves.

[The_Sicatoka]

ESPN says private equity firms are coming to an athletic department near you.

What could go wrong?

https://x.com/BillFarleyPhD/status/1793259361156149627

[BigHorns]

What could go wrong?

https://x.com/BillFarleyPhD/status/1793259361156149627

A very apt analogy. PE firms are like Vultures looking for some choice pickings. Make a deal with the devil(s) and it will surely not end well for those schools.

[BigHorns]

I don't agree with the premise that the money from the NCAA tournament media deal would've been that much less had players been getting NIL money - for the P4 schools that money is a pretty small percent of their athletic revenue. They get much more from their own conference media deals, ticket sales, and donations and that's the kind of money that would've been going to NIL deals for players instead. So the P4 and the NCAA want to take the entire chunk owed out of the pool that is shared between all the D1 schools instead of out of the pool that benefitted the most from not having to worry about paying for NIL of the athletes - they can go fuck themselves.

Precisely!

Hope the G5, FCS and rest of D1 have the balls to step up and reject this.

[NDSU92]

Precisely!

Hope the G5, FCS and rest of D1 have the balls to step up and reject this.

So then what’s the next step? Who controls the NCAA?

[BigHorns]

So then what’s the next step? Who controls the NCAA?

I have not looked at the precise makeup of the Div 1 committees that would have to vote this up/down, but believe there is representation of ADs/Presidents from the P5 (autonomy), G5, FCS, and non-football D1 (eg: Big East) conferences. The P5 do have an outsized voice typically, but I believe if everyone else was united against it, the NCAA would reject the agreement, on the basis of committee votes.

That would potentially leave the P5 on the hook since they were the major defendants in the case. They might at that point threaten to leave NCAA or actually leave. But would that be worse than subsidizing them?

[Grizzled]

I have not looked at the precise makeup of the Div 1 committees that would have to vote this up/down, but believe there is representation of ADs/Presidents from the P5 (autonomy), G5, FCS, and non-football D1 (eg: Big East) conferences. The P5 do have an outsized voice typically, but I believe if everyone else was united against it, the NCAA would reject the agreement, on the basis of committee votes.

That would potentially leave the P5 on the hook since they were the major defendants in the case. They might at that point threaten to leave NCAA or actually leave. But would that be worse than subsidizing them?

Yes because they subsidize a high percentage of G5 and smaller schools.

[BigHorns]

Yes because they subsidize a high percentage of G5 and smaller schools.

I wonder to what degree this is true. How much of school athletic budgets comes from NCAA via P5 revenue? Much more than 10%?
What percentage of BBall tournament money would P5 get if they split off? Lots of fans love the cinderellas.

What people seem to be saying is all of NCAA is at mercy of P5 because they have and generate all the money.

If true, we are screwed either way when they do eventually leave, and money is taking them down that path.
If NCAA overall agrees to own the debt for this settlement, and then P5 leaves, it could be even worse.

[NI4NI]

Sometimes it's best to demo a building and build new instead of renovating an obsolete old one.

[NDSU92]

I wonder to what degree this is true. How much of school athletic budgets comes from NCAA via P5 revenue? Much more than 10%?
What percentage of BBall tournament money would P5 get if they split off? Lots of fans love the cinderellas.

What people seem to be saying is all of NCAA is at mercy of P5 because they have and generate all the money.

If true, we are screwed either way when they do eventually leave, and money is taking them down that path.
If NCAA overall agrees to own the debt for this settlement, and then P5 leaves, it could be even worse.

For the last 50-60 years it’s been very much a mutually beneficial relationship. The big schools got the benefit of all the eyeballs of G5 fans who wanted to see the big boys of their division playing. People watch the championship of their team’s division whether their team is playing or not.

The G5 schools got to market and fundraise based on the fact that they were at the same level as the big boys (although that facade has slowly crumbled the last few decades). Don’t forget to take into account the branding value that G5 schools got from this. It doesn’t show up in the AD bottom line but it’s very valuable to the university as a whole.

Obviously the P5 feels like the calculus has changed and they’re better off flipping everyone the bird and going on their own. NIL and transfer portal have now been laid bare as just tools they used to drive a wedge between themselves and the rest of the schools. As all predicted, the G5 hung on for dear life and the P5 is now trying to make their lives so miserable that they just decide to hell with it and move on.

We’re going to find out if the P5 can be successful as a minor league system (I don’t think so) and if the G5 can succeed with a brand level similar to FCS (I don’t think so).

At least we’ll finally be with the G5. No more playing keep away from us. They’re going to need all the brand recognition they can get.