DI track and field athlete Sabrina Oostburg isn’t celebrating the recent NCAA settlement, which allows colleges to pay athletes directly.

The Belmont University student said she was standing next to a volleyball player and two football players when the news came out. One of the football players reacted positively and then turned to the volleyball player to get her take.

“It’s good for you because you’re going to get paid, but some of your female athlete friends might get cut,” Oostburg recalled the volleyball player saying.

The recent settlement, which ended multiple antitrust cases against the NCAA, sets up a system in which football players will likely get the lion’s share of the money. The settlement’s back-pay portion, for example, allocates 75% to football, guided by how much revenue the sport brings in.

Colleges that opt into the settlement can pay up to $20.5 million to their athletes for the year starting July 1 (with increases in subsequent years).

“It’s going to be focused on football, basketball,” Craig Weiner, a partner and litigator at Blank Rome, told Business Insider.

While schools are free to distribute the money to different teams as they wish, there is a clear incentive for them to want to remain competitive in football to generate revenue. That could mean some athletic programs — if we take that 75% figure as guidance — will need to cover $15 million in new expenses to pay football players.

Where is the money going to come from? Oostburg said she’s worried about cuts to her team and others that don’t make money for the college. She fears they could lose roster spots, places where they practice and train, or even snacks.

“I think you’re going to see cuts potentially in the non-revenue sports,” Weiner said. “As far as support, athletic facilities, athletic support. Money that is that is earmarked to help the non-revenue producing sports, because they’re going to focus on the money makers.”

The settlement ruling could create Title IX issues

The skew toward football and men’s basketball in the $2.8 billion back-pay part of the settlement has already attracted a legal challenge.

Dan Ain, an attorney at Reavis, Page, Jump, noted that current and former DI female athletes had filed an appeal. They argued that 90% of the back pay going to former football and men’s basketball players was a violation of Title IX, which requires schools to give male and female athletes equitable opportunities.

Ain also pointed out that Judge Claudia Wilken, who oversaw the case, said that athletes could sue if they felt there was any infringement on Title IX due to the nature of the revenue share model.

“This is new territory for schools,” Ain said. “Schools, for the first time, will be deciding how to allocate tens of millions of dollars in revenue share to individual athletes. The expectation right now is that the distribution is going to be grossly unequal between men and women, and that will open schools up to Title IX litigation.”

Athletes have to run their deals through a clearinghouse

Oostburg said she also had concerns about a new clearinghouse that will oversee deals athletes strike on their own with brands, called NIL deals (short for “name, image, and likeness”).

Athletes with deals of over $600 will have to report them to the clearinghouse, operated by Deloitte, which will determine the athlete’s value. If the deal is higher than their assessed value, it can’t go through. Athletes who don’t report deals or violate them by taking something of a different value could have their eligibility taken away.

For athletes like Oostburg in “non-revenue” sports, NIL deals — often driven in part by their social media footprint — are the biggest money-making opportunity.

“That does concern me,” Oostburg said. “If I get a deal over $600 and they decide, no, that doesn’t make sense for someone like a track athlete like me to get a $1,000 deal.”

MORE than 2,500 athletes from over 180 countries have registered to take part in this month’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

Many of the world’s top swimmers are expected to be in town, including the likes of two-time Olympic gold medallist Strahinja Rasovic from Serbia, American Olympic silver medal winner Claire Weinstein and Scotland’s most decorated Olympian Duncan Scott.

The WCH, as the competition is called, is the sport’s flagship international meet and is being held in South-east Asia for the first time. It runs from Jul 11 to Aug 3 and there are six aquatic sports: swimming, artistic swimming, water polo, diving, high diving, and open water swimming.

Singapore will be represented by its largest-ever contingent at the WCH with 72 athletes – of which nearly half (32) are making their debut – in all the disciplines except for high diving. At the 2023 championships in Fukuoka, Singapore fielded 27 athletes in four disciplines.

The line-up this year includes 16 swimmers, 10 divers, nine artistic swimmers, eight open water swimmers, as well as the men’s and women’s water polo squads.

Swimming and artistic swimming events will take place at the new 4,800-seater WCH Arena, which was built earlier this year on a former open-air car park next to the Leisure Park Kallang mall, a short walk from the National Stadium.

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The other two competition venues are the OCBC Aquatics Centre, where diving and water polo will take place; and Palawan Green in Sentosa, where spectators can catch the open water and high diving events.

‘Purpose and pride’

Distance swimmer Gan Ching Hwee said that nothing can beat the feeling of competing for one’s country in front of a packed home crowd.

“I’ve had the privilege of representing Singapore at major events like the Olympics, but standing on the blocks in front of a home crowd is something I’ve dreamed about for a long time,” noted Gan, who turns 22 later this month.

She finished ninth in the 1,500-metre freestyle at last year’s Paris Olympics, setting a national record for that event as well as the 800-metre freestyle.

“It gives you an extra sense of purpose and pride. This is a milestone not just for us as athletes, but for Singapore sport, and I hope our performances will inspire more young Singaporeans to believe in themselves and chase their goals,” she added.

Lee Kai Yang, the captain of the men’s water polo team that is making its first appearance at the WCH, said he is ready to go full throttle and show what the team can do on the world stage.

The 29-year-old is a goalkeeper who has already helped Singapore win several medals, including gold at the Southeast Asian Games in 2015, 2017 and 2023.

“Many of us have grown up competing at the regional level, and now we finally get the chance to represent Singapore on the world stage,” he explained. “We know we will be up against some of the best in the world, but we are ready to step up, give everything we have got, and show what Singapore water polo is capable of.”

While it is a first outing for the men’s team at the WCH, the women’s water polo team is competing at the global meet for the second time, having made their debut in Doha last year.

Some of the other members of Team Singapore to watch out for in the pool are Teong Tzen Wei, who was a silver medallist at the last Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023.

The 27-year-old also claimed a silver at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 in the 50-metre butterfly, becoming just the third Singaporean to win a swimming medal in that quadrennial event.

Over in diving, among those to keep an eye on are synchronised springboard divers Max Lee and Ayden Ng, winners of the Sportsboy Team of the Year (event) at last year’s Singapore Sports Awards.

In artistic swimming, Debbie Soh leads a nine-member team that includes Yvette Chong and Kiera Lee. The trio recently secured a bronze medal in the overall duet category of the 2025 World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Series, which was Singapore’s first ever medal in the circuit.

Singapore Aquatics president Kenneth Goh said the fact that so many of the Republic’s athletes are making their WCH debut “speaks volumes about the depth of talent” today.

He added: “We have established ourselves as a powerhouse in aquatics in the region, consistently competing against the best in Asia. But to become the best in the world, we must challenge ourselves against the very best, and we will not shy away from that.”

With one of the biggest cycling races on the horizon, Strava – with over 150 million athletes in more than 185 countries – has released new data highlighting the rise of cycling in the UK.

While elite riders prepare for a summer of cycling, Strava’s insights highlight a new wave of enthusiasm for cycling at the amateur level, too. Among the findings, younger generations are embracing the sport in record numbers, women are riding more than ever before, and local cycling clubs are thriving.

Key trends from Strava’s data include:

Gen Z and Millennials lead the charge: The younger generation is driving the UK’s cycling boom, with the number of cyclists under 35 on Strava rising by over 80% since 2019.
Cycling clubs experience big growth: The social side of cycling is surging. Over the past year alone, the number of athletes in cycling clubs on Strava in the UK rose by nearly 60% – as more people rode together than ever before.

More women in the saddle: The gender gap in cycling is narrowing. In the UK, cycling activity logged by women has risen by nearly 20% since 2019 – with more women riding for both commuting and leisure.

International sun riders: UK cyclists are packing their bikes and heading abroad for their routes. The five most popular countries for UK-based athletes logging rides abroad in 2024 were:

1. Spain
2. France
3. Italy
4. Netherlands
5. USA

Amy Hudson, UK endurance cyclist and author, commented: “It’s exciting to see Gen Z and Millennials redefining what it means to be a cyclist. It’s clear that cycling is now much more than just a sport – it has become a way for people to connect with communities, seek adventures and escape the stressors of daily life.

“The huge growth in local cycling clubs also shows just how powerful that connection through sport can be. It’s particularly inspiring to see more women joining the movement and playing a big part in making cycling a more supportive and inclusive scene for everyone.”

PULLMAN – As the athletics ecosystem department at Washington State changes, most notably cutting field events from its track and field program three weeks ago, more clarity is also beginning to surface about the impact of the House v. NCAA settlement at WSU.

In a Thursday news conference on Zoom, most of which she spent discussing the track and field cuts, WSU Athletics Director Anne McCoy confirmed that in the wake of House settlement, which paves the way for universities to begin directly paying athletes and went into effect on Tuesday, the Cougars are allotting $4.5 million this year for the football program.

That includes scholarships, stipends and NIL, she said. McCoy did not provide a number for WSU’s basketball programs, saying she didn’t know it off hand, but offered to let media know later on.

That means that while WSU’s football program may be getting what McCoy called a $4.5 million “benefits pool,” only some of that will be dedicated to institutional NIL payments – and she declined to detail those numbers, citing competitive advantage reasons. It’s unclear how the figure stacks up nationally, but it figures to be competitive in the new Pac-12.

Other nuggets from McCoy’s roughly 30-minute news conference are as follows:

• WSU’s apparel contract with Nike, worth about $2.3M annually, expired last week. Asked whether it stands to get renewed, McCoy said, “Stay tuned on that. I think there will be official news shortly.”

• On a similar Zoom news conference in April, McCoy said the school was about two to three weeks away from announcing new lodging availabilities in Pullman, potentially alleviating the issue of pricey hotels for football game weekends. But on Thursday, McCoy said she still wasn’t ready to provide more details, saying, “I think we’re close to rolling out a lot of that and a lot of other amenity updates, but not quite there yet.”

• As LSU prepares to sell advertisement patches on its football uniforms this fall, McCoy said WSU had not explored such a path, but she didn’t rule it out entirely: “To say we would or we wouldn’t do that, I don’t know, but we have to consider it,” she said. “I think we have to consider everything or we do ourselves a disservice.”

• Only one game on WSU’s 2025 football schedule, a Nov. 22 road contest against James Madison, doesn’t have a kickoff time. Because the game is at JMU, the ball is in the court of the Dukes and the Sun Belt Conference. McCoy said she has no update on a start time for that game.

• Over the weekend, the rebuilt Pac-12 officially welcomed Texas State as its crucial eighth all-sports members, meeting NCAA requirements for FBS conferences. As the conference looks to partner with more TV networks (on top of its foundational agreement with CBS), it’s possible commissioner Teresa Gould could look to add more schools than the minimum of eight all-sports members.

“I think the Pac-12 has done a good job of really looking at a phased approach on that,” McCoy said, referencing media rights packages and conference additions. “I think that they continue to evaluate, as we will collectively as a conference, what any future membership potential looks like, but also really finalizing the remaining pieces and getting those announced for the media partnership.”

Despite averaging 19.6 points per game with a great shooting touch as a senior at Cal Poly, Kobe Sanders was no closer to playing in the NBA than Manny Machado.

So Sanders, the former Christian High School standout, decided to play his final college season at Nevada. And pro teams took notice.

Sanders averaged 15.8 points and 4.5 assists for the Wolf Pack and was selected by the New York Knicks in the recent NBA Draft, the 50th pick overall. He was immediately traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in a draft-night deal.

At 6-foot-9 and 210 pounds, Sanders is a long, lean wing whose size, mobility and vision make him a candidate to contribute in the NBA.

Sanders, whose brother Gage played at Steele Canyon, was an All-Eastern League player at Christian as a senior, averaging 16.7 points and 5.0 rebounds a game. He averaged 12.0 points and 3.8 rebounds as a junior for the Patriots after spending his first two high school seasons at Steele Canyon. He finished his high school career with more than 1,000 points.

Sanders spent his first four college seasons at Cal Poly, eclipsing the 1,000-point mark in the final game of his senior season in a game against UC San Diego.But he was only an honorable mention All-Big West pick after averaging nearly 20 points a game as a senior.

At Nevada, he rarely left the court, averaging 31.5 minutes a game. He scored 20 or more points nine times, and put up 30 against both Boise State and UNLV. He was named a third-team All-Mountain West player.

He’ll start his pro career later this month at the NBA Summer League.

WNBA

Three San Diegans are playing in the WNBA this season:

• Kelsey Plum (La Jolla Country Day/Washington) is playing for the Los Angeles Sparks, where she is averaging 20.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. Drafted by No. 1 overall by San Antonio after a spectacular college career, she moved with the team to Las Vegas, winning a pair of WNBA championships. A three-time All-Star, MVP of the 2022 All-Star Game, she was traded to the Sparks in the winter.

• DiJonai Carrington (Horizon Christian/Baylor) is playing for the Dallas Wings, where she is dealing with a rib injury. Carrington has appeared in 14 games this season, averaging 11.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. She played for years for the Connecticut Sun and was traded to Dallas after averaging 12.7 points and being named to the league’s All-Defensive Team. She played four years collegiately at Stanford before finishing at Baylor.

• Te-Hina Paopao (La Jolla Country Day/South Carolina) was taken 18th overall by the Atlanta Dream in this year’s NBA Draft. Through her first 17 games as a professional, Paopao is averaging 5.9 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists. She had a career-high 16 points against Chicago, hitting five 3-pointers.

Water polo

Kendall Wyer (Bishop’s) finished her freshman season at Princeton with 15 goals, 22 assists and five steals. An attacker, she had hat tricks against Wagner and Bucknell and two goals vs. USC. She was a two-time CWPA Rookie of the Week. The Tigers finished 21-7 and had 10 wins over ranked teams before losing in overtime to Harvard in the CWPA championship game.

Softball

Shortstop Breanna Lutz (Ramona/Palomar College) was named State Athlete of the Year by the California College Sports Information Association. A left-handed hitter, she batted .560 to lead the state and had 10 home runs, 19 doubles, six triples, 59 RBIs and scored 72 runs for the Comets, who finished the season 44-5.

Football

Julian Sayin (Carlsbad) is expected to open the 2025 season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. He was ranked as the No. 5 QB in the 18-team Big Ten by USA Today behind Penn State’s Drew Allar, Illinois’ Luke Altmyer. Nebraska’s Dylan Railola and Dante Moore of Oregon.

Track & field

Ethan Heldman (La Jolla Country Day), a freshman pole vaulter at NCAA Division III Bowdoin College, cleared a personal best 14-7 1/4 at the State of Maine Championships.

• Ethan Estrada (La Jolla Country Day), a senior at Bowdoin, cleared a personal best 13-5 1/4 at the conference championships.

Scholars

Taylor Wessel (La Jolla Country Day), a senior swimmer at Idaho, was named Academic All-WAC.

• Dani Hackman (La Jolla Country Day), a junior swimmer at  Washington and Lee in Virginia, was named a Scholar-Athlete for the third straight year.

In the pros

Trey Kell (St. Augustine/San Diego State) has signed to play for the Illawarra Hawks in Australia’s NBL. A guard, he averaged 20.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists last season for the Adelaide 36ers.

• In baseball, Grant Larson (High Tech-San Diego/Central Oklahoma) and Shane Telfer (Cathedral Catholic/Pepperdine) are playing for the Ottawa Titans in the independent Frontier League. Luke McCullough (Coronado/Villanova) is pitching for the Washington Wild Things in the Frontier League. Aidan Risse (La Jolla Country Day/USF) is pitching for the New York Boulders in the Frontier League.

John Maffei’s Alumni Report appears during the college season. Readers are encouraged to send items on local athletes to john.maffei@sduniontribune.com.

Originally Published: July 3, 2025 at 2:41 PM PDT