because the fireworks are likely just beginning. The small schools were not informed of settlement negotiations, just handed a bill after the fact. They may fight it as more become aware of the impact. The judge may not accept the settlement or accept it with further conditions. Everybody is still trying to digest the fine print. The $20MM you speak of is the ongoing payments to current athletes and I believe is actually 20% of average gross revenues(no idea how that term is defined yet). The settlement for back pay $2.77B and how it will be paid is what has the small school hackles up. As usual everybody gets screwed other than the scumbag lawyers pocketing about a third of the settlement. Long way to go in reality I think before this crosses the finish line.

From the article below... "This simmering battle has reached a boiling point this summer with House settlement terms. The Other 28 are responsible for 35% of the $2.77 billion in back damages to be paid to former college athletes over a 10-year period. That figure, about $970 million, has incited harsh public criticism from their commissioners who say they were not involved in the settlement negotiations... The power conferences are paying about 23% while the NCAA national office foots 42% of the bill. The confounding part, many commissioners say, is that about 95% of the $2.77 billion in back-pay is intended to be distributed to power conference athletes." So assuming everything is accurate, P5 athletes get 95% of the $2.77 billion in back-pay. But the payment is only 23% from P5, 42% from NCAA and 35% from the 28 smaller conferences. Meanwhile, when looking at NCAA payouts from basketball (old article linked below but with a good sample of data), it looks like the P5 earned about 45% of the units in the past. So lets round up and say they now get 65% of the basketball payouts each year. I'm thinking that is how the NCAA came to it's payout % and sticking the small guys with 35% of the bill. But it's a false calculation and is not how the settlement should be determined. I think basketball money sharing from the NCAA side has been very fair and consistent. This is all about regular season media money for basketball and overall media money for football. The media contracts should be the sole criteria for determining who has to pay the settlement. I'd guess less than 5% should come from the 28 small conferences.

and simply stated if you know who the damaged parties are in the back pay AND you know where they played AND you know the actual formula to calculate the actual individual damages then it should be straightforward to assign settlement damages to the parties responsible for those damages. To put it in even simpler terms the Big boys pawned off in round figures $840MM of their liability on the little guys without so much as a heads up. Mind you that is even before talking about differences that might arise from sport specific allocation. The NCAA comes off looking slimier than ever in terms of favoring one segment of their membership over another. I suspect that as more details come out so will more questionable actions. I also expect there are some lawyers getting ready to potentially collect more fees. I hope the parties(schools, administrators, etc.) involved in negotiating this scam of a settlement get exposed and held to account and, yes, I realize I MIGHT be advocating for an outcome that could have varied consequences for VT. I used to believe the scumbags at the NCAA were the biggest part of the problem but, the old adage we have met the enemy and it is us is playing louder and louder. The next act, for which we have already been given a preview, is the B1G and SEC doing to the ACC and Big 12 the same thing the four of them are now doing to the 28 smaller D-1 conferences.

Tell the House, NCAA and athletes to go screw themselves. Someone needs to step up.

Change in TV revenue year over year Increased payouts from the expanded CFP Altered payouts from the NCAA, which is money from the hoops NCAAT. In that case, it's not clear if distributed revenue will rise or fall due to the House settlement (if approved) vis-a-vis rising TV revenue. Also, some departmental costs used as eye candy to attract recruits likely will (or should) be cut as the NIL, role, and minutes now dominate college choices for revenue sports athletes. In addition, $20M (which is not a fixed amount) is a cap, not an all-or-nothing expenditure. And it's not really a cap, because schools will find a way to use NIL to pay whatever extra they wish to pay.

If you are going to cut costs then you have to pick from the list below if men’s sports at VT. And even then, it won’t get you the full amount. And if you start cutting back on coach salaries in football then you quickly lose the top guys for recruiting and/or game day coaching. Facilities have to be maintained so that is not an option. Increase ticket prices by 50% to make fans pay? Could work but damn it would hurt. VT has no good options.

Also, in Virginia, effective 7/1/24, specific sports donations to VT and other Virginia universities can be used for NIL. To my knowledge the immediate financial effect on VT athletics hasn’t been publicly addressed at this point, so I’m not sure anyone knows exactly what’s going to happen there.