Sources: NCAA could pay $2.7B in antitrust suits
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Pete Thamel
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Dan Murphy
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Dan Murphy
ESPN Staff Writer
- Covers the Big Ten
- Joined ESPN.com in 2014
- Graduate of the University of Notre Dame
The NCAA’s national office might be footing the bill for a settlement expected to be more than $2.7 billion in the landmark House v. NCAA lawsuit and other related antitrust cases, in hopes of reshaping and stabilizing the college sports industry, according to multiple sources on Thursday.
Sources told ESPN this week that parties have proposed the NCAA’s national office — rather than its individual member schools or conferences — would pay for the settlement of past damages over a period of 10 years. The NCAA payments would be paid to former college athletes who say they were illegally prevented from making money by selling the rights to their name, image and likeness.
The settlement would come with a corresponding commitment from conferences and schools to share revenue with athletes moving forward, per sources. The settlement would establish a framework for power conferences to share revenue with their athletes in the future. Sources have told ESPN that schools are anticipating a ceiling of nearly $20 million per year for athlete revenue share moving forward. (That figure for a revenue share is derived from a formula that’s expected to be, per sources, 22% of a revenue metric that’s still being discussed, which is set to be based on various revenue buckets. It would be up to the schools to share that much.)
The dollar value and timing, sources cautioned, is not yet set and could change due to the myriad variables involved in the case.
Steve Berman, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, told ESPN he believes the House case is “the difference-maker” after more than a decade of legal battles chipping away at the NCAA’s rules. Berman declined to comment on the specifics of the ongoing settlement talks, but said the plaintiffs’ leverage is growing as the case moves closer to trial.
“Our leverage is a big cannonball rolling down a hill and picking up speed,” Berman said. “The longer they wait, the more they’re going to have to pay. It’s that simple.”
The NCAA declined to comment.
Since a cadre of collegiate sports and NCAA officials met plaintiffs’ attorneys at the Hyatt Regency at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport on April 25, the details for potentially settling the House case have begun to be distributed to campuses. After interviews with more than a dozen college officials, industry sources and lawyers this week, ESPN has learned that many crucial details for a settlement remain unsolved, but both sides are making progress toward a deal that could serve as a catalyst for the new business model of college sports.
“They’ve got stuff on paper,” said an industry source. “This is not just lawyers and commissioners meeting and having a cocktail. This snowball is moving downhill. The horizon on this is about a month.”
Plaintiffs in the House case argue that the NCAA is breaking the law by placing any restrictions on how athletes monetize their name, image and likeness. The case is scheduled to go to trial in January 2025. If the NCAA loses the case at trial, it could owe athletes more than $4 billion in damages.
Along with saving money, the NCAA is also motivated to settle in hopes of laying the groundwork for a system that could help them avoid future litigation. A settlement alone might not provide that protection without additional help from Congress or a collective bargaining agreement with athletes.
The NCAA and its conferences are defendants in at least two other federal antitrust cases that are challenging what remains of the association’s amateurism rules. Those outstanding cases would also likely be resolved as part of the House settlement.
Earlier this month, the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment, which asks the judge in the case to rule on several key arguments prior to trial. The hearing for summary judgment is scheduled for September, and a ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor could continue to increase their leverage in a negotiation.
One of the outstanding issues in the potential settlement of the House case is whether or not a settlement would eliminate future antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and its schools.
“I’m very concerned about the fact that a settlement is really not a settlement,” an industry source told ESPN concerning looming issues that need to be resolved before settling. “It doesn’t have enough protections. If it were an all-encompassing settlement with congressional approval, I’d feel a lot better.”
College sports leaders have been asking Congress to write a new federal law for several years that would, among other things, protect them from future litigation.
Sources told ESPN that some school officials are hoping that a House settlement could spur action on Capitol Hill. Several members of Congress who have worked on college sports-related legislation in recent years declined to comment on what impact a settlement might have on the creation of a new federal law.
As information has been brought back to campuses, the biggest concern is how protective the settlement would be from future antitrust lawsuits.
“You can’t just settle the lawsuits,” said another industry source. “You’ve got to be able to emerge with something in return, other than the settlement. If you don’t have the requisite ability to structure the future. All we’re going to do is shake hands and wait five minutes for the next filing. You don’t want to be waiting for the next lawsuit here.”
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Andrea Adelson
Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M remained the top three teams in the latest College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday, while Alabama dropped six spots to No. 10 after its loss to Oklahoma.
The Crimson Tide are now behind No. 9 Notre Dame, even though they have more top-25 victories (four) than the Irish (one). Georgia, which Alabama beat in September, moved up to No. 4, while Texas Tech moved up to No. 5, Ole Miss to No. 6, Oregon to No. 7 and Oklahoma up three spots to No. 8 after its 23-21 win in Tuscaloosa.
BYU is ranked No. 11, followed by Utah at No. 12, Miami at No. 13, Vanderbilt at No. 14 and USC at No. 15. The Hurricanes jumped two spots after a 41-7 win over NC State, but they are four spots behind Notre Dame — a big point of contention among those at Miami and in the ACC. The two teams have the same 8-2 record, but Miami beat Notre Dame 27-24 to open the season.
Earlier this week, Miami coach Mario Cristobal was asked how head-to-head games should be viewed in CFP résumé comparisons and he said, “The No. 1 criteria is always head-to-head. It’s why we play the game, right? That always has been and always will be the No. 1 factor.”
The big difference between them is the losses: Notre Dame lost close games to two ranked teams (Miami and Texas A&M), and Miami lost to two unranked teams (Louisville, SMU).
Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek, who took over as the new selection committee chair following the resignation of Mack Rhoades, said that to this point, “we really haven’t compared those teams,” referring to Miami and Notre Dame. That said, if both teams were to end up in a comparable tier, then “head-to-head will be a significant data point,” according to Yurachek.
“They haven’t been in similar comparative pools to date,” Yurachek said. “But Miami is creeping up in that range where they will be compared to Notre Dame if something happens above them.”
Texas, meanwhile, saw its at-large hopes take a hit. The Longhorns tumbled seven spots to No. 17 after a 35-10 loss to Georgia dropped them to 7-3, moving behind No. 16 Georgia Tech. Michigan is No. 18, Virginia is No. 19 and Tennessee moved up three spots to No. 20.
Illinois, Missouri, Houston, Tulane and Arizona State round out the top 25.
The five highest-ranked conference champions will make the 12-team field, but there is a tweak to the format this year, as the committee is using a straight seeding model. The top four teams in the final ranking, regardless of conference championship, will receive a first-round bye.
If the playoffs were held today, these would be the first-round matchups: Tulane at Texas Tech; Miami at Ole Miss; Alabama at Oregon; Notre Dame at Oklahoma. While Miami is slotted in as the highest-ranked ACC team in the current rankings, the Hurricanes have long odds to win the conference title.
If Georgia Tech beats Pitt on Saturday, and Virginia beats Virginia Tech next week, those two teams would play for the ACC championship. The winner would earn the automatic berth as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions.
For Miami to advance to the ACC title game, the Hurricanes need to win out; have Virginia, Georgia Tech and SMU lose their remaining games; and have Duke lose one of its final two games. ESPN FPI currently gives Georgia Tech a 35.3% chance to win the ACC and Virginia a 32.7% chance.
The SEC led the way once again Tuesday with nine ranked teams, while the Big Ten has six, the Big 12 has five with the additions of Houston and Arizona State, and the ACC has three after Pitt dropped out following its 37-15 loss to Notre Dame. Tulane replaced USF as the top-ranked Group of 5 representative.
Even though Alabama dropped to No. 10, the Crimson Tide still have favorable odds to make the SEC championship game, which would all but guarantee a spot in the CFP no matter the result. According to ESPN Research, Alabama has a 71% chance to make it to Atlanta with only one SEC game remaining, at Auburn in the Iron Bowl.
Georgia is done with SEC play but would lose a tiebreaker to Alabama. If Texas A&M wins at Texas next weekend, the Aggies would clinch a spot in Atlanta.
In the Big Ten, Ohio State and Indiana are in good shape to make it into the CFP. There is a crucial conference game this weekend that will have major implications for the Big Ten and an at-large berth: No. 15 USC travels to play No. 7 Oregon.
In the Big 12, Texas Tech and BYU are the only two teams with one conference loss, so they would play for a conference title if they win out.
The final CFP rankings will be announced Dec. 7, the day after the conference championships. The four first-round games will be played at the home campuses of the higher-seeded teams on Dec. 19 and 20. The four quarterfinal games will be played at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl (Dec. 31), the Capital One Orange Bowl (Jan. 1), the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential (Jan. 1) and the Allstate Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1).
The two semifinal games will take place at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Jan. 8 and 9, respectively.
The CFP National Championship game is Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin scored his 903rd career NHL goal as the Washington Capitals beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Monday night.
Ovechkin also passed Gordie Howe for the most regular-season goals scored at a single venue in NHL history with his 442nd goal at Capital One Arena.
Matt Roy also scored for the Capitals, who ended a two-game losing skid to gain some traction in the standings.
Anze Kopitar scored for lone goal for the Kings, who had won four straight. It was just their second regulation road loss of the season.
Washington, which has been struggling to finish at 5-on-5, opened the scoring early, as Roy got to the front of the net and tipped Aliaksei Protas‘ point shot past Darcy Kuemper. It was Roy’s first goal in 25 games, dating to last season.
In the second period, Ovechkin crashed the crease and got to the front of the net before burying a behind-the-net feed from Connor McMichael. Ovechkin now has goals in back-to-back games and three of his past four.
Kopitar pulled Los Angeles to within one with his third goal of the season with 6:33 left in the second. He tapped in a backdoor feed from Corey Perry on a power play. Washington has now given up a power-play goal in three straight games and five of the past six.
Despite a rally, the Kings couldn’t beat Charlie Lindgren, who stopped 30 of 31 shots for his second win of the season after losing his previous four starts.
Kuemper stopped 23 of 25 in the defeat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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