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.

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 2 pm

Lifestyle

Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.

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.”