1. The House settlement will change college athletics — and Illini athletics — forever. It’s an exciting time as college athletes will receive a financial windfall and college programs should have more structure and rules in place to theoretically tidy up what has been the Wild West during the last few years of NIL. It’s also a nerve-racking time because big questions remain, both nationally and locally.
On a national level, how Title IX applies to the revenue-sharing element of the $2.8 billion settlement looms large. Will schools be required to distribute the revenue-sharing dollars evenly among men or women or will it be distributed more based on the revenue generated by those specific sports, allowing most of those dollars to be paid out to football and men’s basketball? NCAA president Charlie Baker has said it’s more likely the latter. But that likely will be determined by the courts. How the matter is resolved will have huge ramifications for programs financially and the future of collectives. Of course, decisions on roster sizes — with no “scholarship caps” — will be significant too, and I still have some skepticism of who and how this will all be monitored and enforced.
But I have plenty of specific questions about how this will impact Illinois athletics as well. Let’s roll through some of those lingering questions that we will dive into with Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman — also now the chair of the Division I Council — at his annual summer media roundtable this summer.
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