UR opts in to House settlement, will only pay hoops players

[SFspidur]

Figured this deserves its own thread...only men's and women's hoops players will get paid directly by the school. Everyone is of course eligible for outside NIL. Don't see anything about UR's scholarship plans.

Edit: UR press release is live.

University of Richmond Opts in to House v. NCAA Settlement - University of Richmond Athletics

RICHMOND, Va. — The University of Richmond is opting in to the terms of the House v. NCAA settlement for the 2025-26 school year, the school announced Friday...

richmondspiders.com

 

[spiderstudent17]

Glad to see women’s basketball is included. Hopefully another of the many reasons, for Roussell to stay as we continue to show our commitment to WBB success. Would love to know how much money is going to both teams.

Also would’ve liked to see UR opt in for several of our other sports, but reasonable to start with MBB and WBB as that is the clear priority.

 

[SFspidur]

UR FAQ on the settlement, includes the roster limits. By my count we are currently over the caps in the following sports:

Baseball: 43 (cap of 34)
Men's Hoops: 17 (cap of 15)
Men's Golf: 10 (cap of 9)
Men's Lax: 52 (cap of 48)

Women's Cross Country: 35 (cap of 17)
Women's Soccer: 39 (cap of 28)

I think the women's XC number is just because everyone on the T&F roster is automatically listed on the XC roster as well. It looks like almost all of them participate in the Spider Open, even the jumpers, but they don't participate in the other XC competitions during the season.

But it looks like baseball and soccer will have to make major cuts.

Richmond Opts in to House v. NCAA Settlement - University of Richmond Athletics

Summary Division I collegiate athletics has been an integral part of the Richmond student experience for decades; the landscape of collegiate athletics is ch...

richmondspiders.com

 

[spiderstudent17]

UR release:

“
The University of Richmond is opting in to the terms of the House v. NCAA settlement for the 2025-26 school year, the school announced Friday. As permitted by the terms of the settlement, Spider Athletics will begin providing direct payments to men's and women's basketball student-athletes for the use of their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL).

"A successful Division I Athletics program has been an important part of the Richmond experience for decades," said University of Richmond President Kevin F. Hallock. "Athletics brings generations of Spiders together, strengthens our ties with the surrounding region, and offers a platform to showcase our remarkable university on a national stage. Our university provides an extraordinary academic experience with deep mentoring relationships in a relentlessly welcoming environment. That, combined with our commitment to Division I athletics at such a high level is extremely rare."

Payments to men's and women's basketball will be sourced from philanthropy and additional Athletics revenues.

"This decision is essential to maintaining Richmond's status as a top-tier men's and women's basketball program in the Atlantic 10 and continuing Spider Athletics' tradition of competitive excellence at the highest possible level," said Vice President and Director of Athletics John Hardt. "Opting in to the terms of the settlement is the best way to preserve Richmond's ability to offer Spiders unparalleled opportunities to grow, learn, lead, and succeed."

Spider student-athletes in programs other than basketball will remain eligible to receive external NIL income subject to NCAA rules, and Spider Athletics will continue to provide resources to assist them in that effort. Richmond's decision to opt in to the terms of the House settlement also requires UR to abide by new roster limits proposed in the settlement.

Whether or not they opt in, all Division I institutions will see a significant reduction in distributions from the NCAA to fund the settlement. The NCAA will also require all institutions to follow enhanced reporting requirements regarding all forms of NIL agreements between student-athletes and external individuals or organizations.

Should the House v. NCAA settlement receive final judicial approval on April 7, implementation could begin as early as July 1.

Additional information on the House v. NCAA settlement and its impact on D-I athletics is available here.”

- -

“Payments to men's and women's basketball will be sourced from philanthropy and additional Athletics revenues.” I assume philanthropy means we can donate directly to UR for NIL? If so that would be wonderful and I hope they create a membership level system like the old spider club days.

 

[SFspidur]

Well done, guys...the short link is currently broken, but I assume it just goes to the press release.

 

[spiderman]

"sourced from philanthrophy..."

I assume this means these payments replace the current NIL?

 

[spiderstudent17]

How much do you all think we’re going to give to MBB and WBB each year?

 

[spiderstudent17]

"sourced from philanthrophy..."

I assume this means these payments replace the current NIL?

I’m not sure. I too wonder if the Spider Collective is still going to operate separately for MBB or be absorbed into this. The collective was probably raising $500-700K range from what I’ve read. We’re going to have to bump this now to the $2-3 million range between donations and our own direct university revenue.

 

[RichmondNative]

I assume “additional athletics revenues” means ticket prices are going to go up. What’s the guess on that front and how many season ticket holders are going to pay more to see an inexperienced team lead by Mooney?

 

[urfan1]

UR FAQ on the settlement, includes the roster limits. By my count we are currently over the caps in the following sports:

Baseball: 43 (cap of 34)
Men's Hoops: 17 (cap of 15)
Men's Golf: 10 (cap of 9)
Men's Lax: 52 (cap of 48)

Women's Cross Country: 35 (cap of 17)
Women's Soccer: 39 (cap of 28)

I think the women's XC number is just because everyone on the T&F roster is automatically listed on the XC roster as well. It looks like almost all of them participate in the Spider Open, even the jumpers, but they don't participate in the other XC competitions during the season.

But it looks like baseball and soccer will have to make major cuts.

Richmond Opts in to House v. NCAA Settlement - University of Richmond Athletics

Summary Division I collegiate athletics has been an integral part of the Richmond student experience for decades; the landscape of collegiate athletics is ch...

richmondspiders.com

XC & TF numbers have been shown this way to boost Title IX numbers.

 

[MDspider8]

How much do you all think we’re going to give to MBB and WBB each year?

Given how tight-lipped we've been about NIL, I'd be relatively surprised if the school puts out how much we're going to give. Based on other A10 programs, it needs to be around $3 million for us to stay competitive. VCU mentioned that number weeks ago and it look like Mason is also planning for that figure.

 

[Eight Legger]

Offer more than vcu and buy all their players.

 

[SFspidur]

Offer more than vcu and buy all their players.

And their coach?

 

[GKiller]

I assume “additional athletics revenues” means ticket prices are going to go up. What’s the guess on that front and how many season ticket holders are going to pay more to see an inexperienced team lead by Mooney?

yeah I would love to know how they think they'll get it. if there were easy revenue sources why woudln't we have done it sooner. I agree men's season tix increase likely & fair esp since those are pretty cheap. But tough to do that coming off our season as you mention.

More likely they'll just have $ from cutting expenses - employees, maybe a sport, maybe actually less scholarships (football top target) - so I wouldn't call it new revenues but savings. Mooney's salary would be a great cut tho not viable.

Of course they are not going to put that in a press release. The "philanthropy" will only go so far and I'm skeptical of how much will be consistently raised there. But again we can manuever $ around from UR operations and endowment. need to imo if want to be real players in this. that wouldn't make press release either.

making the NCAA tourney and going further in NCAA would be best revenue generator but we know how we value that...very little.

 

[MDspider8]

One area that's potentially exciting about this - since we and other A10 schools don't have major football programs, we can seemingly stay competitive with some power conference programs. Schools in major football conferences are going to give a TON of money to the football programs, meaning they'll only have a few million left over for basketball. Here's an example from UGA, who is using 75% ($13.5M) of their budget on football, leaving only $2.7M left for basketball.

If we fund this seriously like VCU and other A10 schools are going to, there's a window of opportunity for us here.

 

[spiderman]

I really should know more about this than I do.

"The House v. NCAA settlement requires all Division I schools — even those that choose not to opt into the student-athlete compensation portion of the agreement — to pay into the $2.8 billion settlement over the next 10 years to compensate current and former college athletes for the NCAA's use of their name, image and likeness (NIL)."

former athletes? everyone? going back how far?

 

[urfan1]

I really should know more about this than I do.

"The House v. NCAA settlement requires all Division I schools — even those that choose not to opt into the student-athlete compensation portion of the agreement — to pay into the $2.8 billion settlement over the next 10 years to compensate current and former college athletes for the NCAA's use of their name, image and likeness (NIL)."

former athletes? everyone? going back how far?

As I understand the former only goes back 6 years, likely a statute of limitations issue, The revenue sharing is different matter, schools paying current athletes and still different from collectives,

 

[SFspidur]

Yes, it goes back to 2016, and almost all of the money will be going to P5 football and basketball. Other athletes might be able to get a few bucks for a Big Mac and some fries.

And the smaller conferences are on the hook for a huge chunk of the settlement cost even though their former athletes will see almost none of the payments. The NCAA will withhold several million dollars a year from the A-10 alone in order to pay toward the settlement.

 

[Wood Hall]

This settlement is total BS. I have read that the P4 teams - who spend almost all the money on NIL - will only be responsible for 40% of the settlement costs. The A-10 and other mid- and low-major schools will be paying for the other 60% even though their NIL spending pales in comparison to the Big 18, SEC, etc.

I will never willingly donate a dime to any NIL fund. OSU is slapping a $3 NIL surcharge on all tickets so I will be forced to spend some that way if I plan to continue attending FB, BB and baseball games.

 

[SFspidur]

Indeed, the NCAA is paying ~$1.1 billion out of its own coffers, and the remaining ~$1.6 billion is coming 40% from the big guys who were the actual defendants in the lawsuits and 60% from the little guys like who us who weren't even part of it.

 

[urfan1]

Indeed, the NCAA is paying ~$1.1 billion out of its own coffers, and the remaining ~$1.6 billion is coming 40% from the big guys who were the actual defendants in the lawsuits and 60% from the little guys like who us who weren't even part of it.

I read an article about this and IIRC, it estimated each FCS school would have to pay about $240,000 per year of the settlement (10 yrs?) to their former athletes. Concept was the money would come from such schools share of NCAA tournament payout. I don't think the numbers work.

Have been told it only applied to former athletes that opted into settlement of class action suit. Assume all others would still be able to sue their respective school.

 

[SFspidur]

The money we pay (or is withheld from our conference distributions by the NCAA) goes into the general settlement funds. It’s not specifically for our own former athletes. And almost all of it will go to former P4 athletes.

 

[spiderstudent17]

If other P5 schools are following Georgia’s model of allocating the funds, then UR has an especially golden opportunity with women’s basketball. I hope women’s basketball gets at the very least $500K and ideally $750K+. This really is a huge pivot point about the direction the WBB can take and for $500K - 1 mill isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things for a wealthy school like UR to give, and it’ll put us on par with P5 teams. We already have an elite coach. If we can now give Roussell the same resources P5’s are going to give to their WBB, then the ceiling for this program can be very high in my opinion.