then they can claim the direct payments are similar to a student participating in a school's work-study program. If the schools decide to enter into multi-year contracts with the athletes, then they could be encroaching on the possibility that these athletes are really more like the school's other employees. If the athletes are more like a professor, secretary, maintenance worker, or whatever other position you want to include on the list, then it opens the door to whether the school can require the athletes to fulfill an education requirements and/or limit the athlete's window of eligibility since the schools currently don't have those requirements with their regular employees.