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It's a new dawn in the world of college athletics. On Friday night the long-awaited $2.8 billion House settlement was approved, officially ushering in an era where schools can directly pay players.
Immediately after the landmark agreement, a number of new entities and executives emerged to lead college sports into the future. While this is all expected to play out in the coming months and years, there is already A LOT of moving pieces.
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You can read all about what's included in the settlement here, but if you're looking for a quick breakdown of some of the more immediate changes, we've got you covered.
Here are the people, terms and regulations you need to know about.
The College Sports Commission
Say goodbye to the NCAA's wildly unpopular enforcement and penalty process, and say hello to its replacement: the newly-created College Sports Commission. You're going to be hearing about it a lot when it officially begins operations on July 1, 2025.
Here's what the new oversight authority will be in charge of policing, per USA TODAY's Steve Berkowitz:
Rules-making.
Managing the NIL Go system, an electronic system that athletes will be required to use to report the details of their NIL deals with entities other than their schools.
Figuring out how to determine the legitimacy of those deals, and how to deal with appeals by athletes, who — under the settlement — can seek arbitration if they want to challenge a determination that a deal is not legitimate relative to having a “valid business purpose” and being within “a reasonable range of compensation.”
Forming a new regulatory and enforcement entity that will be led newly named chief executive officer Bryan Seeley. According to the announcement of his hiring on June 6, Seeley "will build out the organization’s investigative and enforcement teams and oversee all of its ongoing operations and stakeholder relationships. … Seeley and his team will also be responsible for enforcement of the new rules around revenue sharing, student-athlete third-party name image and likeness (NIL) deals, and roster limits. The Commission will investigate potential rules violations, make factual determinations, issue penalties where appropriate, and participate in the neutral arbitration process set forth in the settlement as necessary."
Speaking of enforcement, the CSC is expected to resolve any investigations within 45 days — a major shift from the long, drawn out NCAA investigations fans have come to expect. The CSC's CEO can be the judge, jury and executioner here with the ability to impose fines and penalties.
College Sports Commission CEO Bryan Seeley
For all intents and purposes, Seeley is the new top dog when it comes to college sports compliance. He was hired by the four power conference commissioners (ACC's Jim Phillips, Big Ten's Tony Petitti, Big 12's Brett Yormark and SEC's Greg Sankey).
So here's the skinny, per ESPN's Jeff Passan and Pete Thamel:
Seeley is MLB's executive vice president, legal & operations, and he brings investigative experience, which will be key in this role. In the post-settlement era, the NCAA will no longer be in charge of the enforcement of most rules. (It will still maintain purview over things like academics, but it will not patrol benefits.)
The CSC is the new era's enforcement arm that will have final say in doling out punishments and deciding when rules have been broken. It's one of the most important roles in this new era, as the industry has been craving some type of guidance since the advent of name, imagine and likeness has made the descriptor "wild, wild west" a common one in regard to the generally unregulated college sports industry.
In a formal announcement, Seeley's job is described as having to "build out the organization's investigative and enforcement teams and oversee all of its ongoing operations and stakeholder relationships." Per the release: "Seeley and his team will also be responsible for enforcement of the new rules around revenue sharing, student-athlete third-party name image and likeness (NIL) deals, and roster limits."
Some more quick facts about Seeley:
- 42 years old
- Joined MLB as Vice President, Investigations & Deputy General Counsel in 2014
- Served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington D.C. from 2006-2014, prosecuting white-collar crimes, fraud and corruption
- Attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School
NIL GO
No, this is not the latest streaming service. It's a clearinghouse established by Deloitte to handle number-crunching and maintain compliance between schools, athletes and third parties. It will also fall under the CSC's purview.
Per ESPN's Pete Thamel and Jeff Passan:
LBi Software and accounting firm Deloitte have been lined up to handle salary cap management and to manage the clearinghouse for NIL. Those NIL deals will be outside of the revenue share directly from schools, and how they are approved has been the focus of much conversation around college sports.
The clearinghouse that Deloitte has established will be known as NIL Go, which will be used to verify whether deals between athletes and boosters or associated entities are for a valid business purpose rather than a recruiting incentive.
Whether or not a school opts in to provide NIL payments to athletes, any Division I athletes who signs an NIL deal worth $600 or more will have to go through NIL GO.
Salary Cap And Roster Limits
Yep, it's happening in college sports.
Schools will start with a $20.5 million cap that's set to increase by four percent annually, with a notable caveat, per Berkowitz:
In Years 4, 7 and 10, new baselines would be established based on the defined set of Power Five athletics department revenues. However, under certain circumstances connected to the timing and value of media rights contracts, the plaintiffs' lawyers have two options during the 10-year settlement period to have new baselines set more quickly.
The settlement was temporarily help up in court by the issue of roster limits, as programs already began cutting walk-ons and other players in anticipation of the salary cap. That was resolved through a "grandfathering" agreement that will delay some roster limits if players were already promised a spot.
Per CBS Sports:
[U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken] asked attorneys to craft a plan to allow current players to be "grandfathered in" with the new roster limits. The NCAA, power conferences and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit instead offered a compromise: schools have the option to keep current players on their rosters and temporarily exceed new limits until their eligibility expires.
The new roster limits were expected to lead to the cutting of nearly 5,000 athletes from teams across the NCAA's 43 sponsored sports. Some sports will increase roster limits compared to previous years, but many will be trimmed despite offering unlimited scholarships within those new thresholds. Football rosters will shrink to 105 players, resulting in schools cutting more than 20 players, though most schools are expected to exceed those limits by grandfathering in current athletes.
March 1 Deadline For Non-Power 5 Schools
The start of March has now become one of the most crucial days on the sports calendar as non-Power 5 schools will have to declare by then whether or not they are opting into revenue sharing for the following academic year.
Per the CSC:
All current members of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC are participating in the new revenue sharing model overseen by the College Sports Commission. Division I schools from other conferences can choose to “opt in” to revenue sharing and must formally do so by June 15, 2025, at which point a full list of participating schools will be made public.
Each year, schools outside of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC will have the option to opt in to or out of revenue sharing. These schools must notify the NCAA if they will opt in to (or opt out of) revenue sharing for the upcoming academic year by March 1 of each year. In order to opt out, an institution must have fulfilled any relevant obligations to student-athletes and all revenue sharing - or incremental increases in scholarship - must cease.
It is important to note that regardless of whether an institution opts in to revenue sharing, all Division I student-athletes will be subject to the new rules and requirements around third-party NIL deals.
This is a whole new world of college athletics and there's a lot to process here. We'll continue to break down all the developments over the coming months (and years).
This article originally appeared on For The Win: 5 House settlement changes college fans will notice immediately
Reporting by Blake Schuster, For The Win / For The Win
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