NCAA Settlement to Watch - Schools Pay Players

[SpiderTrap]

Saw this on ESPN and it looks like in as soon as next year - schools will have the ability to pay players directly, with this article estimating that there will be a cap in place and estimate it starting at 20 million dollars.

Landmark college settlement gets preliminary OK

A judge granted preliminary approval to the landmark $2.78 billion legal settlement that would transform college sports by allowing schools to pay players.

www.espn.com

I think the effects of this will only widen the gap between the power conferences and everyone else. Those power conferences already control the transfer portal because they have the NIL and collective money to buy all the players they want, now if the NCAA gives them the ability to pay the players themselves as well - they will also benefit and this just adds to the amount of money available for them to hand out. Obviously - this initial impact will be hard on football and basketball.

Something to keep a close eye on.

 

[spider23]

Don't worry Trap, I have my people monitoring it very closely.

 

[spiderman]

best players were going to high majors way before NIL. playing best competition gave them the best chance at the pros.
NIL gave smaller programs the chance to outbid if they could put together the money. this just brings us back to where we were.

 

[SpiderTrap]

best players were going to high majors way before NIL. playing best competition gave them the best chance at the pros.
NIL gave smaller programs the chance to outbid if they could put together the money. this just brings us back to where we were.

Not so sure about that. This gives the big boys more money to fill out rosters and take chances on transfers. Best players went to P5 before - yes they did, but that was mainly when recruiting HS kids. Now - best HS kids go to P5, but so do the best transfers. Now if the P5 have more money to spend - I would be concerned a kid transferring from Wagner or Albany, where a good jump is from there to the A10, might now be lured to the P5 program because that school can just easily give them 50K or maybe 100K right away. And while that kid may see the writing on the wall - playing time will be difficult, it is hard to turn down that amount of money, which the P5 schools will have more of to give out. The dominos is maybe after a year or two - you see some of those kids fall down in the portal to mid-major level or below as playing time becomes more important.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out - but I just see this making it even harder on the smaller and lower end schools.

 

[spiderman]

I would be concerned a kid transferring from Wagner or Albany, where a good jump is from there to the A10, might now be lured to the P5 program because that school can just easily give them 50K or maybe 100K right away.

if a kid is wanted by a P5 school, they're already offering more NIL than the A10 schools. and for the most part ... every kid transferring is going to the highest level program they're offered at ... which coincidentally has the highest NIL.

 

[Anachnid]

Sounds like an invitation for the government to ease out of the student loan business.

 

[spiderstudent17]

 

[Spiders4ever]

View embedded media

Even the P4 schools are cutting back because of the extra scholarships. My daughter works in a P4 athletic department and they did not hire any paid interns this year. Instead of working with 2 varsity sports, she is working with 4.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

So walkons are no more, they have to be on scholarship to be on the team? Do current walkons get grandfathered in, or do they have to eat a scholarship or find a new school?

I'm a little unclear on the reasoning for a roster limit of players. Why not just raise the scholarship limit, but still allow walkons? Of all the issues in college hoops, having too many walkons did not seem to be one of them.

 

[SFspidur]

Schools don’t HAVE to fund scholarships up to the roster limit, though you have to believe pretty much every hoops program will.

NIL became a workaround for scholarships…call a kid a walk-on but shovel NIL his way that is equivalent to a scholarship. So the settlement was no more scholarship limits, just roster limits. Everybody can get a scholarship/NIL to level each school decides to fund.

 

[spiderman]

NIL became a workaround for scholarships…call a kid a walk-on but shovel NIL his way that is equivalent to a scholarship.

I'm going to continue to assume walk-ons get the smallest NIL on the team, if any. if they're good enough, they get a scholarship.
agree with others that this change is strange. not sure what prompted it.

great year to be a high school senior though. a ton of scholarship openings available.

 

[GKiller]

I'm going to continue to assume walk-ons get the smallest NIL on the team, if any. if they're good enough, they get a scholarship.
agree with others that this change is strange. not sure what prompted it.

great year to be a high school senior though. a ton of scholarship openings available.

I’m still expecting them to grandfather in existing walkons. Imagine u r a 3 year walk on about to graduate the following year. Now u can’t be on team? Seems unduly harsh. But idk I think have seen a couple tweets from athletes from smaller sports saying they r in market for new school due to roster limits. If there is no grandfathering in I will not be surprised if Kirby Mooney gets a ship.

 

[urmite]

I'm going to continue to assume walk-ons get the smallest NIL on the team, if any. if they're good enough, they get a scholarship.
agree with others that this change is strange. not sure what prompted it.

great year to be a high school senior though. a ton of scholarship openings available.

Not always the smallest. What if Duke already had 13 scholarship players but unlimited NIL, So…

14th player is a walkon named Zion who gets $900k in NIL.

 

[spiderman]

Not always the smallest. What if Duke already had 13 scholarship players but unlimited NIL, So…

14th player is a walkon named Zion who gets $900k in NIL.

quite the hypothetical. I don't think that happens.

 

[urmite]

quite the hypothetical. I don't think that happens.

I have no idea what is happening but the reasoning behind the new rule was that top 40 teams were adding a 14th player that was as good as their 11 to 13, buy using Nil instead of scholarship.

But like I said I have no idea if rule makers knew what they were talking about…

 

[SFspidur]

Scholarship limits were the subject of an antitrust lawsuit (Cornelio vs. NCAA). It's not directly part of the House settlement, but its claims are addressed by the NCAA's proposed changes.

With scholarship limits claimed in Cornelio to be wage fixing, the NCAA has caved to say it can't regulate the number of allowed scholarships. So it's doing the only other thing it can do to try to have some guardrails and instituting roster caps.

 

[spiderman]

wonder how this affects the military schools.
Army and Navy are both D1 and both have over 25 guys on their roster. everyone in the academies is on "scholarship" in exchange for future service. are they really going to force those schools to cut 10 guys from the team? because that's just wrong.

 

[urmite]

wonder how this affects the military schools.
Army and Navy are both D1 and both have over 25 guys on their roster. everyone in the academies is on "scholarship" in exchange for future service. are they really going to force those schools to cut 10 guys from the team? because that's just wrong.

Did Navy have that many back in the CAA? I don’t remember that…

 

[SpiderTrap]

I would assume schools will still have "walk-on designated players" but they will just receive a scholarship.

It will be near impossible for mid-major and above to round out a roster of 15 players because players 10-15 will hardly ever play, and likely players 9-10 will not play much either. So unless you want to over-recruit, and have 5 or more players transfer out, I think coaches will still have "Walk-ons", which will just mean - your a kid with an understanding that your not gonna play, and we really need you more for practice than anything.

Where this might hurt is you might lose a few kids, not a lot, who could probably play lower D1 or maybe even D2, they can now get a "walk-on" scholarship to be a part of a big program. Some kids might want that more than playing D2, others will want playing time. But now that you can get a scholarship to those kids, some might decide - its free education either way, why not go to the bigger school, sit the bench, and be a part of a team. But again - I don't see this having a major impact.

But I do see walk-ons continuing to exist. Simply because it will be impossible to get 15 recruited high level players on a team, and you know half will likely transfer out when not playing. At least the walk-ons, you don't expect a transfer.

 

[GKiller]

I would assume schools will still have "walk-on designated players" but they will just receive a scholarship.

It will be near impossible for mid-major and above to round out a roster of 15 players because players 10-15 will hardly ever play, and likely players 9-10 will not play much either. So unless you want to over-recruit, and have 5 or more players transfer out, I think coaches will still have "Walk-ons", which will just mean - your a kid with an understanding that your not gonna play, and we really need you more for practice than anything.

Where this might hurt is you might lose a few kids, not a lot, who could probably play lower D1 or maybe even D2, they can now get a "walk-on" scholarship to be a part of a big program. Some kids might want that more than playing D2, others will want playing time. But now that you can get a scholarship to those kids, some might decide - its free education either way, why not go to the bigger school, sit the bench, and be a part of a team. But again - I don't see this having a major impact.

But I do see walk-ons continuing to exist. Simply because it will be impossible to get 15 recruited high level players on a team, and you know half will likely transfer out when not playing. At least the walk-ons, you don't expect a transfer.

I don't think they'll intentionally want to give ships to walk on practice players. They recruit over you anyway in transfer portal I don't think most coaches care about over recruiting. Just like many things it's a numbers game. Picking your best rotation guys out of a larger pool of players (15) is better long term. Just like with high schools the larger classification schools should be better...why because they have a much larger pool of kids to pick from to make the team.

You can find good players on the back half of your roster that maybe you didn't know how good they were going to be. So I don't think giving 2-3 of those spots away to guys that usually have no shot & will only be practice guys, helps your odds.

Now I do think some spots on teams initially will go to existing walk on types - think Kirby Mooney. I also agree that by practice it can still be hard to get 15 guys. Tho easier for many high level teams. Because yes kids want to go to those schools if they r getting offered, and they think they're going to play. But with the transfer portal it does change things a bit. Now u have a year where u have more transfers out than expected and u r stuck with limited inventory, u end up short on ships & then can easily have a walk on or 2. Tho probably the big schools will go and attempt to poach the mid major hs recruits especially if Letter of Intent signing is gone.

Anyway I think it does happen where teams aren't filling up the 15 with 15 legit guys, but not because walk ons don't transfer or a coach intentionally wants to have a less amount of good players. But we'll have to see how it plays out.

 

[spiderman]

???
every team will recruit the best 15 players they can. nobody will be designated a scholarshipped walk on. just like now with 13, every player will feel they'll earn time eventually. and some won't get time. the UVA 12th-15th man may transfer down to hopefully play ... just like 12th-13th man does today.

 

[spiderman]

this change is another shot at mid majors, by the way.
2 more good HS players are going to take full rides to every high major program over their mid major offers.

 

[spiderstudent17]

this change is another shot at mid majors, by the way.
2 more good HS players are going to take full rides to every high major program over their mid major offers.

For high school recruiting, yes. For transfers I think it'll continue to benefit us. Like you said in your previous post, instead of the 12th-13th guy transferring because of no playing time, it’ll now be the 12th-15th. I don’t think there will be a big drop in transfer volume, even with Covid eligibility being done after this year.

 

[SpiderTrap]

For high school recruiting, yes. For transfers I think it'll continue to benefit us. Like you said in your previous post, instead of the 12th-13th guy transferring because of no playing time, it’ll now be the 12th-15th. I don’t think there will be a big drop in transfer volume, even with Covid eligibility being done after this year.

I would expect transfer volume to increase with these new scholarship limits. Because - if you are a team who decides to fill out your team with 15 players at a scholarship level and not 2-3 scholarship walk-ons, then it is safe to assume players 10-15 on your roster have a very high probability to transfer because they will not see any playing time. Then - depending on your level, expect 1-2 of your top rotation players looking to move up.

And agreed - this benefits the big boy programs. They are the ones who can afford this. They are also the ones who maybe have a shot at stashing a player from a lower conference or a guy they would not normally recruit as their 12-15th roster spot, and if he turns out to be good and they can convince him to stay - they win. If that 12-15th guy turns out to be a good player at a mid-major program, he is likely transferring up to see how high he can go.

What the mid-majors are likely to see - a large influx of guys transferring down. They have to go somewhere right?

 

[spiderman]

agreed, probably more transfers.
walk-ons hardly ever transfer. they know their plight. scholarshipped guys not playing transfer a lot.

 

[AnnapSpider]

Did Navy have that many back in the CAA? I don’t remember that…

Even the greedy oligarchs of the NCAA give the Academy’s special exemptions. Whose going
to fight their wars if they piss them off?

 

[spiderstudent17]

Historic House-NCAA settlement leaving hundreds of Olympic sport athletes in peril

While the NCAA and power conferences agreed to expand upon scholarships as part of the settlement, they also imposed roster limits for sports, many of which did not previously exist.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[SpiderTrap]

I don't understand roster limits from the NCAA perspective. I agree there should be scholarship limits, as that tries to impose a level playing field, but if a team wants to carry 2 walk-ons or 12 walk-ons, more power to them. That is a school decision and something they carry the burden of.

 

[SFspidur]

But the NCAA can't restrict giving those walk-ons money. So roster caps it is.