MILWAUKEE — Last week, the NCAA and its Power 5 conferences agreed to a landmark deal that will allow Power 5 schools to directly pay their student athletes.
In this new agreement, the NCAA is responsible for paying $2.7 billion in damages over 10 years to past and current athletes, while each Power 5 school will have a yearly budget of $20 million to share with its student athletes.
When name, image, and likeness (NIL) went into effect in 2021, it was clear that college athletics had changed forever. This new deal between the NCAA and its Power 5 conferences marks another historic change to the landscape of college sports.
While many believe allowing student athletes to profit from the multi-billion dollar industry built off of their talent is a good thing, smaller D-I schools across the country have been left scrambling to try and compete with bigger and more profitable universities.
Last week’s agreement also means that non-Power 5 schools are suddenly on the hook to help the NCAA pay back the money they owe to student athletes.
UW-Milwaukee Men’s Basketball Coach Bart Lundy joined Wisconsin’s Midday News to talk about the impact this new agreement has on schools like UWM and also on their ability to recruit talent to the school.
“94% of the money that is going to be in this settlement, is going to go to athletes from Power 5 conferences. But 60% of the burden to pay this $2.7 billion is going to fall outside of those Power 5 conferences to the 300 other universities that are a part of Division 1 NCAA sports…which is crazy,” Lundy tells Wisconsin’s Midday News.
Last week, the NCAA and its five power conferences agreed to allow schools to directly pay student athletes.
— 620 WTMJ (@620wtmj) May 28, 2024
UW-Milwaukee Men's Basketball Head Coach Bart Lundy tells @gmatzek & @jessicatighe how this new agreement will impact smaller D1 schools.
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The Power 5 conferences consist of the Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, Big 12 and ACC.