NDSU Opts Out!!! Who is next?

Wonder if NDSU is just thinking that their NIL collective is strong enough to keep their players payed without subjecting themselves to roster limits.

The only playoffs the Ivies skipped was football and that chnages next year.

Might seem radical, but N D people can take care of themselves and don't need NCAA, USATF, USPOC ripoff schlocks. We want privatization of amatuer sports.

This article about VCU opting in says schools must decide by January 31

commonwealthtimes.org

VCU to begin paying athletes after NCAA settlement

@thect

VCU has entered into a settlement agreement for House v. NCAA, a class-action antitrust lawsuit seeking to fairly compensate collegiate players. Plaintiffs have until Jan. 31 to file objections, opt out or enter the settlemen...

Open link

I would like to see it a pro model but without drafts, trades, salary caps etc. Make it the wild west. We already have the pro sports parity models in the US.

I feel like it makes sense with the service academies. They recruit kids who want to be there who mostly aren't going pro. I think it's overused to argue against NIL by saying they get a free degree but graduating from a service academy does set you up for life with a higher rank as your starting point. Plus the portal can be good & bad. Sometimes it's hard to get a bunch of new guys to gel every year. They get to develop guys for 4 years & don't have to worry about people leaving.

No school is moving from 12.6 scholarships in track/xc to 45 + 17 scholarships. The 45 + 17 are roster spots only with optional scholarship.

More likely with new increased cost of operating football and basketball, the move will be to reduce scholarships for track/xc from 12.6 to 5 and fill in the rest of the roster spots with walkons.

Exception to this will be the p4 track/xc powers.

SEC already agreed on rosters of 35 + 10, with goal of all being on scholarship. Still bottom half of SEC will not fund these rosters with full scholarships.

That is addressing the opposite of the question. Some schools plan to increase scholarships above current levels. The question is what the scholarship and roster limits are for the opt out schools. I can only asdume that they remain as is. A school like NAU can opt out and have 40 guys on the XC team with 12.6 scholarships.

Agree, opt out means stay at current.

But it will rarely be 12.6 vs 45/17.

Even at 12.6 once you get below top 40 schools, very few are fully funded at that level.

So you will often still get:

old using 5 of 12.6 scholarships with unlimited rosters

Vs

new using 5 of unlimited scholarship for a roster of 45/17.

If half the schools in a conference opt out and half opt in we will have to watch how this efffects competitive balance.

Conferences could install roster limits on their own, or there could be more reshuffling of conferences into opt in and opt out conferences.

This isn't "all the way." Drafts and salary caps are horizontal agreements between competitors to restrain wages. They violate the U.S. antitrust law the same way that the NCAA violates it. MLB has an exemption, but the other leagues are exposed. All it takes is a super-talented rookie who decides he's not willing to accept his garbage contract, and the NFL is going to be screwed.

Anyway, the main reason to opt out is that the settlement will probably get thrown out on appeal.

There are 69 P4 schools. Nearly all are fully funded. I assume that some other track and cross country schools are nearly fully funded. I predict that a fair amount of schools will increase scholarships above 12.6 even though it may not happen immediately.

I've thought the same thing for a long time, actually such a long time that I now kind of think if it was going to happen it would have by now and I think the big reason it hasn't is that super talented rookies are not given "garbage" contracts. A super talented draftee who did not want the contract he's offered and wants to challenge the system would need to go to court, a process that takes time. As the legal stuff plays out that rookie isn't playing or getting paid. I doubt any really talented rookie will ever think challenging the system is worth the risk.

i think they make you either do intramurals or NCAA, and they do have some varsity cuts, but it does encourage them in the direction you say, of lengthy rosters.

Yeah, there's a small pool of potential plaintiffs, and someone has to be willing to go for it. I do think that these NCAA cases have changed the climate, though. People used to really think that sports were just different from an antitrust perspective, and the pendulum has swung pretty hard.

A rookie doesn't have to sit out to sue, though. He can take the contract, play, and then sue. He'll need expert testimony about what his likely contract would have been, but the great thing about the Sherman Act is that whatever number they come up with, it gets TRIPLED at the end of the day! I don't think it would be that hard for an NFL rookie making 10 million/year to prove (by a preponderance of the evidence standard) that he'd be making 18 million in a truly free market. Say he'd have a 6 year contract, that's 144 million once it's tripled.

Rojo:

There’s no return to normalcy on the horizon. What’s ahead is a split between institutions that will put unlimited resources into athletics and those that won’t.

What currently exists is professional free agency with no salary caps. To put any limits or caps on compensation, it’ll have to happen through collective bargaining. For that to happen universities will need to recognize athletes as employees.

Currently, courts have refused to support any limits on this free market. Most recently, even a requirement to enter the transfer portal to transfer has been rejected. Athletes can go to any institution at any time and get paid by anybody for any reason in any amount. There’s no change to that on the horizon.

No age restrictions. 6th, 7th—-even 9th years of eligibility. Collegiate sports are over as you would remember from your coaching days.

I hadn't thought of that angle.. I still think if it was going to happen it would have by now. Suing a league or a team at the start of your career doesn't seem a good strategy for later in your career when you're hoping to score a big contract. But who knows?

Since other leagues have players unions and collective bargaining agreements, they are not subject to antitrust laws. The NFL players union threatened to decertify so they could sue the league several years ago but ended up signing the CBA.

the only way this might happen is if a school drops other men's sports to free up cash. no school is just going to throw more money at a non-revenue sport because they will now have less money to go around due to revenue share