NCAA Settles Fed Antitrust Suit, Agrees To Make $10M Available
The NCAA yesterday, as part of a federal antitrust suit settlement, agreed to "make available $10[M] that will provide supplemental money above the standard athletic grant-in-aid to athletes who have competed in Division I-A football and in 16 Division I men's basketball conferences" between February 17, 2002, and the present, according to Carey & Gardiner of USA TODAY. The suit argued that "restricting a scholarship" to the cost of tuition, books, housing and meals was an "unlawful restraint of trade because of the billions of dollars the NCAA earned through broadcast and licensing deals." The $10M will be made available to qualifying student-athletes -- which the NCAA said "could number 12,000" -- over a period of three years "to reimburse them for bona fide educational expenses hereafter incurred," including tuition, fees, books, supplies and equipment (USA TODAY, 1/30). In a separate piece, Carey & Gardiner report the NCAA will "adjust its requirements" for students' access to $218M of assistance money that is already "available to Division I schools through the 2012-13 school year for use by athletes who can demonstrate a financial and/or academic need." NCAA General Counsel Elsa Cole said that the money is "the amount in the funds through the end of CBS' $6[B] TV contract for the NCAA tournament," which runs through 2013. Cole said, "We'll encourage schools to allow students with a demonstrated need (to have access), but it can be used for anything the school deems appropriate." The settlement also includes a provision that "will permit Division I schools to provide year-round comprehensive health insurance to student-athletes" (USA TODAY, 1/30). As part of the settlement, the NCAA "agreed to consider legislation that would allow colleges to extend athletics scholarships beyond five years" and to "discuss guaranteeing multiyear scholarships to athletes." Institutions currently renew scholarships every year (CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, 1/30).
REAX: Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics co-Chair Nathan Tublitz said, "This is good for student-athletes. But the worry is, is there going to be an increased cost to the university that may be paid for through increased commercialization of athletics? There is nothing in the settlement (about) where the funds will come from after (2013). That cost could go back on the shoulders of the institutions" (USA TODAY, 1/30). The CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION's Brad Wolverton writes the "size of the deal shocked some legal experts." Washington lawyer Sheldon Steinbach said, "This makes the settlement against assistant coaches look like a Sunday-school picnic," referring to the NCAA's $54.5M settlement in '99 with a group of former assistant coaches whose salaries had been capped (CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, 1/30).
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