CHAMPAIGN — The House vs. NCAA settlement, which would require Illinois to make name, image and likeness back payments of $22 million to athletes for 10 straight years beginning in the 2025-26 school year, is not actually settled.
This latest bafflement began when Arizona State swimmer Grant House, joined by former athletes like Tymir Oliver of the Illinois football team and Sedona Prince of the Oregon women’s basketball team, sought retroactive portions of NIL (plus broadcast revenue) in a class-action lawsuit.
The NCAA settled, agreeing to pay $2.77 billion rather than possibly losing another court case that permitted triple damages.
However, in apportioning the payments, NCAA president Charlie Baker and commissioners of the Power 4 made the decision without input from the 28 “lesser” conferences.
They determined, in private, that the old Power 5 pay 23 percent of the $2.77 billion, while the NCAA office foots 42 percent.
That leaves 35 percent to be provided by the other 28 conferences, even though many of them are shoestring operations favoring the old amateur model and had little to do with TV income and the 95 percent of athletes who received NIL payments. So tiny Houston Christian College, representing nearly 290 other unhappy institutions, went to court. And that leaves it to U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilden to determine the fairness of it, and whether the big schools should pay more in retroactive payments.
Odds and ends
➜ The Big Ten once “saved” Friday nights for high school football. No more. The conference will have 15 night games, including 13 on 15 Fridays this season. Three of Illinois’ first four games are at night.
➜ One of coach Dan Hartleb’s goals is attracting enough NIL money to complete Illini baseball scholarships in a sport where only 11.7 are permitted by NCAA rule. Mississippi, on the other hand, competes in a conference (SEC) that dominates the sport and provides hundreds of thousands of NIL payments. This is undoubtedly an attraction for Illini right fielder Ryan Moerman, who will spend his final season at Ole Miss after hitting a team-high 19 home runs for the Illini this past spring.
➜ Illinois finished No. 37 in the Learfield Director’s Cup all-sports standings, with points awarded according to the finish in NCAA championships. Most UI points came from men’s golf at No. 5 and the men’s gymnastics and basketball teams. The women’s Big Ten track and field champs tied for No. 16. Hartleb’s Big Ten baseball champs were accorded a tie at No. 33. The Illini were behind Michigan (8), Ohio State (15), Nebraska (22), Penn State (23), Wisconsin (25) and all four new Big Ten members from the West Coast. Texas and Stanford finished 1-2.
Miscellaneous
➜ Controversial columnist Jason Whitlock said from the beginning that Caitlin Clark, so loved and admired at Iowa, should have enjoyed another year of NIL money and basketball success with the Hawkeyes. He now points to excessive pettiness and the mental toll she is absorbing ... predicting she will soon get sick of playing against a group of “angry feminists and racists” in the WNBA, and retire earlier than expected.
➜ Speaking of personalities, did anyone think that Connecticut coach Dan Hurley and LeBron James would be a good fit with the Lakers? And wasn’t Hurley’s wife of 27 years, Andrea, a factor in him staying at UConn after earlier indications she was not interested in a similar offer from Kentucky?
➜ Look for Nebraska, Wisconsin and Penn State to remain on top of Big Ten volleyball as they attract thousands in attendance ... a huge draw for prospective recruits. Nebraska lost to Texas in 2023’s title match. Illinois finished 16-14 last season, and the road becomes even more difficult with the addition of new conference members Oregon (ranked No. 7 last December), Washington (No. 11) and USC (No. 24).
➜ Prior to Will Riley’s arrival, please inform when Illinois last beat out Kentucky in a head-to-head battle for a five-star high school recruit. Mattoon’s author-journalist Will Leitch puts it best in saying Brad Underwood’s program “is swimming in impressive waters for some very big fish.”
Meanderings
➜ There are serious conflicts in the Lawrence County (Kan.) district attorney’s office with the boss, Suzanne Valdez, at odds with Sheriff Jay Armbrister, coupled with a recent announcement that deputy DA Joshua Seiden has left the office. Questions were certainly raise by their poor handling of the Terrence Shannon Jr. case.
➜ The UI’s proposed training facility for wrestling had three factors working against it: (1) A 60-year-old “agreement” that the unique new Assembly Hall would have no buildings around it, (2) increasing cost beyond the original gift amount and (3) sharp department cutbacks due to the House vs. NCAA settlement. But don’t worry about wrestling being on the cutting block. The state emphasizes the sport in high school, and the IHSA state meet is at State Farm Center.
➜ Can Purdue expect a Big Ten men’s basketball three-peat ... and aren’t the 2024-25 Boilermakers a tad overrated? They lost three of their top five scorers in Zach Edey, Lance Jones and Mason Gillis ... plus five-star decommit Kanon Catchings (to BYU). Nor are they heavy into transfers.
➜ With Florida high school athletes cleared to sign NIL deals, it means that universities can begin arranging deals with prospective recruits there before they leave high school. Don’t you wonder how much of that has been transpiring already?
Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.
