Conference commissioners lauded a judge's approval of a 2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit settlement as a means for bringing stability and fairness to an out-of-control college athletics industry but acknowledged there would be growing pains in implementing its terms.
In a 30-minute virtual news conference Monday, commissioners of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC renewed their call for congressional action to supplement and even codify the settlement and emphasized that cooperation at every level of college sports would be necessary to make it work.
They said it was too early to address how violators of rules surrounding revenue sharing and name, image and likeness agreements would be punished and noted newly hired College Sports Commission CEO Bryan Seeley would play a major role in determining penalties.
The new era of college athletics has arrived after U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken gave final approval Friday night to what's known as House vs. NCAA. Beginning July 1 , each school can share up to about 20.5 million with their athletes and third-party NIL deals worth 600 or more will be analyzed to make sure they pay appropriate "market value" for the services being provided by athletes.
Some of the topics addressed Monday: