How Does The New NCAA Settlement Impact Vanderbilt?

The ever-changing era of NIL in college sports was just changed again, and in a big way.

In a report from Pete Nakos of On3 sports, Judge Claudia Wilken approved Friday evening the House vs. NCAA settlement on Friday in the U.S. Northern District of California, marking a landmark decision in the history of college sports.

As a result of the settlement, college institutions can now directly pay student-athletes as a new revenue-sharing era of college sports begins on July 1. The settlement allows for a starting salary cap of $20.5 million that will be paid to athletes with the cap increasing annually.

Additionally, the settlement includes $2.8 billion in back payments to current and former college athletes dating back to 2016. 

The settlement also includes proposed roster limits in college football (105), men’s and women’s basketball (15), baseball (34), softball (25), men’s and women’s soccer (28) and volleyball (18).

So, how does the settlement impact Vanderbilt?

As Nakos also points out in his report, football is expected to receive 75% of the $20.5 million salary cap followed by men’s basketball getting 15%, women’s basketball getting 5% and the remainder of sports getting the final 5%.

Considering college football will be getting the vast majority of the revenue share, it stands to reason that power conference schools in conferences such as the SEC and Big Ten will have the ability to pay athletes far more than any other conference, whether it be highly-rated players from the transfer portal and high school recruits.

Within these power conferences, the result of this new revenue-sharing era in college football and basketball more specifically will likely favor the powerhouse schools. While Vanderbilt could benefit from being in a power conference that will do what it can to compete with the top dogs in the conference, the settlement ultimately has the potential to likely hurt the Commodores.

Schools in the SEC that put more money and revenue-sharing into their football programs will likely stay at the top of the conference and thus create a separation between the schools that have more success and more money and the schools who do not.

Vanderbilt may also have trouble recruiting players from both high school and the transfer portal in football and basketball as a result of the settlement.

In the new era of college sports, student-athletes are won over by how much money they can get paid. As a result of this, the top-rated recruits and transfer portal players will end up going to the schools who offer the most money. Just as the schools who had the bigger NIL collectives were able to sway recruits, the same will be done in this revenue-sharing era. Because of this, it will likely make things more difficult for Vanderbilt to fill their football and basketball rosters with highly-rated players.

Though the settlement can allow Vanderbilt to build a roster of depth for football and possibly basketball as well, it faces a tall task in competing with the top SEC football and basketball programs in building a largely successful roster.