College athletes have been getting paid for their name, image, and likeness since the NCAA changed its policy allowing them to sign so-called NIL deals in 2021. Student-athletes only have been able to accept payments from companies outside their universities, but this summer new rules will go into effect giving schools the option to pay athletes directly.
The University of Cincinnati calls the Bearcats’ first few years in the world of NIL a success. Students in both men’s and women’s sports have been signing brand deals and the university’s recent entry into one of college sports’ Power Five conferences, the Big 12, has put the school’s athletes on a bigger stage.
An agreement signed last year between the NCAA and those Power Five conferences allows schools to give athletes a portion of the revenue their athletic departments generate. That share of revenue is capped at $20.5 million per school in this first year. UC's Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Operating Officer John Daniel says the Bearcats intend to spend every penny.
"UC anticipates fully participating in that number," Daniel told WVXU. "That would include what we refer to as 'institutional brand awareness' or 'house payments' made to student-athletes on our various teams and rosters."
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Although the universities will be paying them, athletes won’t be considered employees. Instead, the “house payments” from schools like UC will be more like financial aid with athletes signing internal deals with their universities.
How that revenue — or "rev-share" — will be allocated remains a question. Football and men's basketball are thought to generate the most revenue. They also cost more to operate, so schools anticipate paying those athletes the most, says Kasey Havekost, a higher education attorney who specializes in athletic compliance for the law firm Bricker Graydon.
"Institutions were going to give around 85% to 90% of these rev share payments to the football and basketball players," she said.
If those payments are considered financial aid, schools would need to comply with Title IX, the landmark Civil Rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination and requires colleges to make scholarships available equally to men and women.
In the final days of the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights released guidance telling schools they will need to share revenues "proportionately" between men's and women's programs. Schools are still looking for clarification on what "proportionately" means and waiting to see if the Department of Education's guidance sticks as the new Trump administration puts different leadership in place.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we see different guidance by the end of the year," Havekost says. "It's hard to say though with any certainty."
For now, schools in the Cincinnati area are keeping their plans close to the vest. Miami University, which is in the non-Power Five Mid-American Conference, would need to opt-in to the NCAA’s new rules to start paying athletes. Athletic Director David Sayler denied WVXU’s request for an interview, but in a statement said the university is working on several different plans to pursue depending on the NCAA’s interpretation of the guidance.
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Northern Kentucky University, another mid-major, is opting in. They want to take advantage of another part included in the NCAA's new revenue-sharing rules: standard roster limits.
Schools that opt-in will be permitted to award more athletic scholarships this year, but that comes with a roster cap. That's a problem for Power Five schools which enroll more student-athletes. It means larger schools will need to cut more non-scholarship athletes, sending them to the transfer portal to join smaller programs whose rosters typically don't exceed the standard cap like NKU says Havekost.
"They may go to those other Division I schools that don't opt-in or even go to Division II, Division III schools," she told WVXU. "You'll see a lot more kids than normal in the transfer portal because of these roster limits."
The new rules effect July 1.
