Bucky Irving #0 of the Oregon Ducks scores a touchdown against the Washington Huskies during the first quarter at Husky Stadium on October 14, 2023 in Seattle, Washington.
All the same, the NCAA and major college sports conferences are facing yet another antitrust lawsuit — among other legal and political challenges — that could force decision-makers to reckon with a reality where some athletes are paid employees or at least get money in a revenue-sharing model that looks a lot like professional sports.House vs.
Two years later, college sports is again in danger of having its future dictated by outside forces, unable or unwilling to get out in front of an issue.NCAA President Charlie Baker is scheduled to testify to a Senate committee Tuesday, the 10th hearing on Capitol Hill focused on college sports since 2020.
But the California case is widely seen as the biggest threat to a longstanding amateur athlete model that isn't changing quickly enough to satisfy its opponents. A loss for the NCAA could require professional-sports style revenue sharing of those multibillion-dollar television deals for big-time college football and March Madness basketball because they involve the use of players' names, images and likenesses.
And if the biggest schools start paying their players, the pressure on the rest of Division I to try to compete would lead many to consolidate their resources to support fewer sports. There are legitimate questions about whether schools would be able to comply with Title IX.