As the NCAA permits GW to begin directly paying its athletes for the first time Tuesday, student-athletes said the landmark settlement could unlock new revenue streams, expanding how they benefit from their athletic contributions.
The settlement, approved earlier this month by District Court Judge Claudia Wilken after a 5 year-long legal battle between athletes and the NCAA, establishes a new revenue sharing model allowing Division I schools to allocate up to $20.5 million annually to student-athletes across all sports in addition to money allocated to scholarships. Three GW student-athletes said the ruling appropriately rewards players for the past harm of not being able to profit off their name, image and likeness until 2021, because they believe athletes deserve to be compensated for their work.
Women’s basketball forward and rising senior Caia Loving, who has profited off NIL, welcomed the opportunities that the settlement could bring. During her three years playing at GW, Loving has exercised her ability to profit off NIL through the GDUB Exchange, which since 2021 has allowed student-athletes to advertise themselves to brands, collectives and donors.
Loving’s page currently lists a social media post for $45, and camps and lessons for $100. While 233 GW student-athletes have GDUB Exchange profiles, Loving is one of the only players with preset opportunities for collaboration.
“I feel it’s something that is love overdue and I look forward to NCAA student-athletes being rewarded in the future for their hard work and dedication in athletics,” Loving said in an email.
The NCAA’s prior model, introduced by the organization in 2021, allowed athletes to profit off NIL, but restricted schools from directly paying players beyond scholarship awards. Although schools will be allowed to directly play players under the new settlement, the NCAA will more strictly enforce regulations on payments from third parties.
The Atlantic-10 opted into the settlement as a league, a GW Athletics spokesperson said on Tuesday, but GW has yet to issue a formal announcement on the matter. Director of Athletics Michael Liptiz did not return a request for comment.
Basketball Head Coach Chris Caputo said Athletics has been preparing for the ramifications of the final approval since at least October, around the time Wilken granted preliminary approval. He said the settlement could help schools without football programs, like GW, because schools with large football programs are likely to spend a majority of their $20.5 million pot of funds on football players, potentially leaving less money for other sports like men’s and women’s basketball.
That means there may be less competition for top athletic schools when it comes to recruiting elite basketball talent, as those programs may have fewer dollars to spend on recruiting the best players.
“There is a theory that the schools that do not have football could choose to make a bigger investment in the basketball programs, so I think that could potentially be a positive,” Caputo said.
Caputo also said GW could benefit from their prior fundraising successes under the new model to add to their recruiting pitch to potential players. He said the program last year raised ten times the amount of money than what they raised during the 2021-22 season.
“I think there’s an opportunity to attract more players,” Caputo said.
By opting into the revenue sharing portion of the agreement, schools will be subject to new roster caps — the maximum amount of student-athletes on a specific team — replacing the scholarship caps formerly in place, which only limited the amount of money a team could grant in athletic scholarships and had no limit on how many athletes the money could be split amongst. One athlete, who requested to remain anonymous to share their personal views about the settlement, expressed concern about how roster caps may create a competitive environment within a team.
“It begins to create an environment where people begin to compete for spots when college sports are about uniting and working towards a common goal of winning as a team rather than working to be ahead of your teammates,” they said in an email.
Despite raising concerns about the roster caps, the athlete said they were supportive of portions of the settlement that require direct payments to student-athletes because it allows them to get paid for the time they put into their sport.
“It’s exciting that the NCAA has expanded so that schools will be able to directly pay their athletes in addition to scholarships and room and board and NIL earnings,” they said.
Women’s gymnast Delaney DeHaan said the ruling would help top programs become even more dominant, due to a new ability to attract top talent with money. Still, she said she doesn’t anticipate taking advantage of NIL deals because becoming an “influencer” doesn’t interest her.
“We’re not one of those power five, big schools, so I don’t see this really being a huge impact on my life and my next two years here,” she said.
DeHaan said she is hopeful for the potential replacement of the equivalent of 12 full scholarships for gymnastics with a roster cap of 20.
“I love that there is now an opportunity to pay more girls for the time that they’re giving and the talent that they have, and hopefully I would love to see our team have 20 full-ride scholarships,” DeHaan said. “I think that would be the coolest thing.”
The settlement also establishes new reporting requirements for donors to receive approval before making payments above $600 to players. The boosters would have to prove to a new watchdog operated by Deloitte that the deal is for a “legitimate business purpose,” and the player is paid a “fair market value” for use of their name, image and/or likeness.
The Revs named the FOG collective its official NIL collective to help facilitate funds to student-athletes in the wake of Wilken’s preliminary approval last October. As an “associated entity,” the collective and its donors would be subject to the NCAA’s clearinghouse requirements — academic and amateurism standards — that student-athletes must meet to compete in DI or II sports for any NIL deals exceeding the financial threshold.
The clearinghouse requirements and new revenue sharing model take effect immediately, even as some individuals have filed pending appeals to the settlement arguing that the agreement fails to require athletic departments to distribute revenue-sharing funds equally across men’s and women’s sports.
Wilken approved the settlement despite Title IX concerns, noting that it does not explicitly direct schools to allocate more funding to men’s programs over women’s.
In addition to the new revenue sharing model, all GW students who were athletes between 2016 to 2024 will be eligible to receive back damages payments from the NCAA, due to a lack of ability to profit off their name, image and likeness during those years.
Although the settlement requires the NCAA to pay $2.8 billion in damages to student-athletes over 10 years, most of that money will go to athletes at power 5 schools like the University of Virginia, University of Maryland and Clemson University.
Fritz Metzinger, a sports attorney at Louisiana-based law firm Stone Pigman, said only about $30 million will be directed towards athletes from non-power 5 division I schools like GW. Given the large size of the settlement class, he said most GW athletes would likely receive less than $100 each in back damages, while men’s and women’s basketball players may receive slightly more.
Syd Heise contributed reporting.
