Article on the coming legal battles for the NCAA and the Power 5 Conferences and how it could affect the future of FBS.
The NCAA is facing legal battles on multiple fronts, and all come with financial risks that could doom the association and some of its member institutions
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The NCAA and the Power Five conferences find themselves as defendants in four high-profile antitrust lawsuits. Settlements in those cases have become
the next hurdle toward whatever college sports will look like in the future.
"You may bankrupt some universities," another Power Five AD said.
The hope? Somehow, all the four cases are bundled and settled at once. For the moment, they pose the biggest immediate financial threat to the existing system. In antitrust cases, damages are trebled. That suggests the NCAA and Power Five probably cannot risk jury trials in any of the cases.
Even if settled, the cases may cost eight figures per school. The NCAA would no doubt cover some of the settlement, but since the Power Five conferences are also defendants, schools are almost certainly going to shoulder some of the burden.
"If there is a settlement in that [
House] case," said a third Power Five AD. "That's going to define the new subdivision."
"A settlement for
House and all the others, it could almost be like what a collective bargaining agreement would sort of look like,"
The settlements would most likely be optional for schools that want to contribute -- "permissive" is the industry buzz word. Will there be some that don't (or financially can't), risking their membership at the highest level of college athletics?
In this case, the knife that cleaves the FBS into further subdivisions would occur more organically. Schools would have to answer one basic question when the settlement money comes due:
What can we afford?
Some discussions have centered around schools opting into the settlement at a capped rate, perhaps 20% of a program's total athletic budget, sources tell CBS Sports.
So, who wants to be in the exclusive club that emerges from the courts?
The Big Ten and SEC have already separated themselves -- financially, if not formally.
Current negotiations reflect the combined swagger of the Big Ten and SEC, which are seeking a combined 58% of annual CFP revenue as part of a new media rights deal beginning 2026,
"There's never been more uncertainty about how universities need to budget their expenditures in the next decade," said Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis. "That being said, it's hard for me to feel empathy for the top 50, 60 financially endowed universities because look at what they're spending on facilities, look at what they're spending on coach salaries."
If the Big Ten/SEC are demanding a majority of the revenue, shouldn't they take on a larger share of the legal liability?
"Are you going to split 60% of the revenue?" one Power Five AD asked rhetorically. "Then you have to pay [a majority of] the damages."
