The House vs NCAA settlement is sending shockwaves across college sports and one of its biggest conclusions was that athletes get a share of the University’s revenue. But one prominent voice in the industry isn’t buying the spin from college leaders that, from now on, revenue-sharing arrangements will be the new way.
In his latest Mailbag for The Athletic, college football analyst Stewart Mandel isn’t buying the idea that the NCAA and the newly minted College Sports Commission from the historic settlement could successfully implement a process limiting how much schools and athletes can spend or earn, all while staying on the right side of federal law.
“Do they truly believe the words coming out of their mouths?” Mandel wrote. “Pro athletes’ salaries only ever go up and up and up. College coaches’ salaries only ever go up and up and up. But we are to believe that the new College Sports Commission has devised a foolproof system to decrease college athletes’ compensation that is — how do you say it — legal?”
Mandel further explained his viewpoint, citing the attempts to cap college athletes’ compensation constitute illegal restraints of trade.
“Over the last dozen years, judges from across the political spectrum, including the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, have found it to be an illegal restraint of trade for the NCAA’s membership to enforce policies that restrict athletes’ earnings,” Mandel added.
The House settlement levies a cap on how much a institution can spend ($20.5 million) to pay athletes along with a limit on third party NIL deals as well.
Stewart Mandel cites Texas Tech’s current NIL situation to further his point on NIL deals
Stewart Mandel cited the example of Texas Tech and how are they going to get under the cap of $20.5 million after already committing to $55 million NIL deals for the upcoming school year. Mandel is not just brewing up random numbers. He confirmed the same through mega-booster Cody Campbell, telling his colleague Sam Khan.
Only two things can happen from here, as Mandel said:
“Either their payroll is going down by more than 60 percent a year from now, or, as I strongly suspect, a judge will have long since issued an injunction that ties the enforcers’ hands.”
It remains to be seen what further comes out of the situation as voices like Mandel are making sure no one buys into what he calls “a foolproof system” without asking.
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