University of Hawaii seeks funding for student athletes

The University of Hawaii is trying to secure better footing on a new competitive playing field for paying student athletes with taxpayer funding that partly drives winning or losing.

On July 1, U.S. collegiate athletics entered a new era when the settlement of a national class-action lawsuit allowed universities to pay players for the benefit of using their name, image and likeness — or NIL — after several years of such payments being restricted to deals from private donors, corporate sponsors and other third parties.

UH officials say that staying competitive in the NCAA’s Mountain West Conference of mid-major schools will take $5 million in annual public funding on top of private funding, and that the new landscape has already negatively affected recruiting.

During a recent legislative