College Athletes Paid By Schools

Starting today college athletes can be paid directly by the schools they attend. Fox News Radio's Tonya J. Powers joins us with the details on how this will work. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is West Michigan's Morning News, Steve Kelly. That is
bred Bikita. For decades, NCAA rules disqualified student athletes from
receiving compensation beyond scholarships, despite the enormous revenues generated by
things like college football and basketball. Then there's nil. Now

(00:22):
there's a settlement and some basketball and football, and wait
about what other sports could begin to get paid. We
will discuss what this thing is all about. Sorry, I
can't see what buttons are on and off because the
sun is in my eye. And I bet that's a
good problem. Brett's like, you want me to shut the blinds,
and I'm like, don't shut the blind It's just too
beautiful out there today.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, we're gonna get Tanya on here in a little
bit for clarification, I'm sure, because this thing makes your
head spin. But like I talked about earlier, what happened
with the settlement house versus NCAAs, Now everyone's talking about
this kind of twenty point five million dollar, you know,
salary cap if you will, for colleges and universities, and
you know, we'll let Tanya kind of explain more.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
In New York This Morning with Fox News Radio Tanya
Jay Powers. So what is this thing all about and
how does it change sports moving forward?

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, this is not I don't think this is a
headline most of us ever thought we would see. It
is kind of surprising and it is like you were
just talking about. It is just settlement that it goes
into effect today. And where this comes from is it's
this most billion dollar settlement. It was just approved last

(01:32):
month by the judge, the federal judge. It allows the
NCAA Division One school to directly pay college students or
college athletes for the first time. This comes from a
lawsuit in twenty twenty from there was filed Grant House,
which he was an Arizona State swimmer, and he became

(01:52):
the lead plaintiff in this lawsuit that challenged the NCAA's
rules around you know, the name, the image, the likeness
of his that they you know, that they could use
or an athlete that they would use. I mean, how
many of us have seen you know, ads for you know,
a men's basketball season or a football season or whatever
that come from a college and they you know, feature

(02:13):
the you know, star players, likeness or you know, it's
kind of that's not uncommon and you know, it's been
it's been talked about forever about you know, well, why
can't they actually make money from you know, the school.
The school's making money, you know, drawing, drawing them in,
and so it's been a big debate back and forth.
This case eventually got through the court a settlement was

(02:35):
announced last year. The judge approved ofvid in June. In
addition to the damages related to the back pay for
these athletes, and by the way, that goes back as
far as twenty sixteen, the two point eight billion dollar
settlement also calls for revenue sharing directly with athletes for
the first time. So that part is is pretty substantial

(02:57):
as to how this is going to be divided up, Basically,
her lives with the schools. They are expected, however, to
follow a similar formula as the back damage's payout part,
which is that is seventy five percent directed toward football,
fifteen percent to men's basketball players, five percent to women's
basketball players, and five percent to the remaining players. That's

(03:19):
kind of expected to be how.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
They divide this up and what's going to be interesting, Tony,
I don't expect to have the answer on this, but
you know, there's so many things that are going to
have to be worked out as you go through, because
the NCA just dove in head first and now they've
got to kind of reel it back in, if you will.
And this is the first start of that with this
so called salary cap. But I imagine it's going to
work like professional sports, right because I look at like

(03:41):
Livy Donna as an example. I mean, she was an
LSU gymnast. It's not one of the high profile sports
that's going to draw a lot of revenue in like
Tanya said, thus seventy five percent for football, fifteen percent
for men's basketball. But she was a million dollar entity
herself because of what she created. So I imagine athletes will
be able to still do their own deals besides getting

(04:04):
a check from the university. And then the interesting part
is if you have a Livy done this sport like that,
does she make a little more because she's worth a
little more. So, right, there's so many things to be
I guess we're lushed out on this as we go through.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Tanya. Yeah, that's a that's a really good point, a
great question. And what happens when one school says, you know,
we realize that you're over here with this school. But
you know what, if you maybe sit out or you
bring your eligibility over here, we'll pay him more. Right,
and then now you've got now you've got a whole
different dynamic going on. You know this, this is this

(04:40):
is fascinating. And also look for more lawsuits the It's
from what I'm understanding, it's likely to lead to a
who bunch of more incoming cases. Uh, you know, title
line cases, limits on compensation, all kinds of different things
that you know, we could see going forward in the
in the future.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Second Winter Attorneys with Billibileous with Fox News Radio in
New York today. Thanks for your time.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Sure, thank you,