For anyone who thought an unprecedented $2.8 billion settlement agreement actually resolved one of the many murky issues of student-athlete compensation in college athletics —not so fast. On June 6, federal Judge Claudia Wilken officially approved the class action antitrust lawsuit House v. NCAA. The landmark settlement turned the amateurism model of athletics in higher education on its head and is set to provide back pay to Division I student-athletes for name, image, and likeness (NIL) earnings. While it took five years of litigation to get approval of the settlement, it took just five days for a group of plaintiffs to appeal it.

NCAA NIL Settlement in House v. NCAA Faces Immediate Title IX Challenge

On June 11, a group of female student-athlete plaintiffs in House noticed an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals registering their objection to the back-pay provision of the final settlement. Although no appellate briefs have been filed yet, these female student-athletes are expected to assert that the settlement’s terms for paying out back-pay damages violates the prohibition on sex discrimination under Title IX because the settlement is set to overwhelmingly pay out most of the back-pay damages to male athletes.

Allegations of Unequal NIL Compensation Based on Gender

More specifically, the settlement’s formula for paying out back-pay damages has allocated 75% of the fund to men’s football players and 15% to men’s basketball players in the five premiere athletic conferences in NCAA Division I, with only 5% of the damages fund allocated to women’s basketball players and the remaining 5% to all other student-athletes.

Proponents of this formula argue that it tracks the gross revenue averages of college sports, and accordingly football players should get the biggest piece of the pie. Opponents, including the appealing female student-athletes, argue that the back-pay damages formula in the agreement will pay male athletes 90% more than female athletes, which they assert is an unlawful disparity based on gender.

The anticipated argument is, essentially, that if the schools and/or the NCAA on behalf of schools had allocated 90% of their revenue to the male athletes during the plaintiffs’ college athletic careers, then they clearly would have violated Title IX’s requirement to provide “substantially proportionate” financial assistance to male and female student-athletes. In short, the schools would not have met their obligation to ensure equitable opportunities for both men’s and women’s sports programs.

Judge Wilken’s view in approving the settlement was that the litigation was an antitrust case, not a Title IX case, and the Title IX compliance, unionization, and collective bargaining issues are outside the scope of the House litigation. She nonetheless left the door open to a Title IX challenge on appeal, indicating that future lawsuits can be filed if the way that schools compensate athletes violates Title IX. Despite the appeal putting the brakes on the payout of back-pay damages under the settlement, the other terms of the agreement were left uninterrupted and went into effect on July 1. This includes roster limits, scholarship limits, and the rules regarding direct pay and revenue-sharing with student-athletes.

What’s Next: Ninth Circuit to Weigh Title IX and NIL Backpay

The Ninth Circuit now has an opportunity to weigh in on whether Title IX does have a bearing on these back-pay damages. It may simply decide that Judge Wilken did or did not abuse her discretion in approving the settlement. Or it could take on the larger controversial and contested issue: How does Title IX apply to NIL payments and revenue sharing with student-athletes, and does the revenue-sharing model set forth under the settlement agreement terms for future compensation for student-athletes run afoul of Title IX?

Regardless of how far-reaching the Ninth Circuit’s opinion ultimately goes in the House appeal this is not the last Title IX challenge we will see to the allocation of direct payments and revenue sharing funds to student-athletes in the near future.

The federal government’s current position on the issue of direct pay and revenue sharing with regard to Title IX does not currently provide decisive direction to courts that may grapple with this issue in the future. The U.S. Department of Education guidance under the Biden administration indicated payments to student-athletes would have been considered “athletic financial assistance,” which requires proportional allocation among male and female athletes at a given institution. The Trump administration rescinded that guidance in February, and in the current landscape, it is unclear whether compensating student-athletes will be viewed by the Office of Civil Rights—the agency division tasked with Title IX enforcement—as subject to Title IX.

Division I schools have been mulling over their options since the proposed settlement agreement was under review. However, the thorny issues of direct pay to student-athletes, equitable sports programming, and NIL deals are not reserved exclusively for D-1 schools and their athletic departments—any college or university with an athletic program should closely track the developments in federal and state law in this space.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho Vandal soccer plays host to Washington State, Boise State, South Dakota, and UTEP in non-conference play while traveling to Washington, Grand Canyon, Bakersfield and making an East Coast swing to face UMass Lowell and Stonehill College.
 
In Big Sky play, Idaho welcomes Montana, Eastern Washington, Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona to the dome while traveling to Idaho State, Weber State, Sacramento State and Portland State.
 
The schedule is among the best in program history and includes some of the Northwest’s top programs.

Idaho opens the season with a pair of exhibition games in early August. The Vandals welcome in West Coast Conference team Gonzaga on Monday, Aug. 4 before traveling to Oregon to play the Big Ten member Ducks on Friday, Aug. 8.

 

The regular season opens in the dome with a contest against UC Riverside on Aug. 14 before closing out the week against Big Ten Washington on Sunday, Aug. 17 in Seattle.

 

The Vandals have a Northeast swing with games against UMass Lowell on Aug. 21 before playing Stonehill College (Mass.) on Aug. 23.

 

Idaho hosts Washington State on Aug. 28, South Dakota on Aug. 31 and UTEP on Sept. 4 before heading road to play at Grand Canyon on Sept. 11 and CSU Bakersfield on Sept. 14.

 

The Vandals host Boise State on Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. to close out non-conference play.

 

Idaho hits the road for games against Idaho State (Sept. 25), Weber State (Sept. 28) and Sacramento State (Oct. 2) to open Big Sky Conference action.

 

Montana comes to the dome on Oct. 5 followed by Eastern Washington on Oct. 12.

 

The Vandals’ final road game will be at Portland State on Oct. 19 before closing the season with home games against Northern Colorado (Oct. 24) and Northern Arizona (Oct. 26).

 

Idaho has played in the Big Sky Championship match each of the last three seasons, winning the title in 2023.

 

Season tickets are on sale now at GoVandals.com/Tickets.

 

The post Josh Heupel drops truth bomb on Nico Iamaleava’s departure at Tennessee appeared first on ClutchPoints.

Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel has had a lot on his plate this offseason, as the team lost their starting quarterback. Nico Iamaleava decided to leave the program, after a dispute over NIL compensation. Now, Heupel is commenting on that entire incident.

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“It’s never about who is not in your building. It’s about who is in your building,” Heupel said, per ESPN.

Iamaleava is now at UCLA, after entering the transfer portal. He threw for 2,616 passing yards last season with the Volunteers. He also finished the season with 19 touchdown passes.

The situation also made waves across college football. It caused a national discussion about new guardrails for NIL. NIL stands for name, image and likeness. It allows college players to get paid.

The Volunteers made the College Football Playoff last season, before losing to Ohio State. Tennessee won 10 games on the campaign.

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Tennessee football has competition at quarterback for 2025

The Volunteers currently have three quarterbacks that are fighting for the starting spot. They are: Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre. Aguilar is considered the top man to beat for the job. He has the most experience at the college level, although he has never started a game for a power 4 program.

Aguilar came to Tennessee in the transfer portal. He spent last season at Appalachian State, but had briefly been with UCLA after his time with the Mountaineers. Last season with App State, Aguilar threw for 3,003 yards and 23 touchdowns. He has thrown for at least 3,000 yards the last two years.

MacIntyre is considered a top prospect, who was highly ranked by college football recruiting services in the 2025 class. He is from the state of Tennessee and was considered the top recruit in the state this past year by many scouting services.

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Merklinger was used sparingly in the 2024 season by the Volunteers. He ended up taking a redshirt after playing a few games. The young quarterback is also a highly regarded prospect.

Tennessee football starts their 2025 season against Syracuse. The two schools meet on August 30.

Related: Georgia football QB Gunner Stockton confidently brushes off Paul Finebaum criticism

Related: Steve Sarkisian reveals major point of emphasis that cost Longhorns national titles

One of the top-ranked players in the 2026 recruiting cycle came off the board on Tuesday morning, with 5-star linebacker Tyler Atkinson announcing his commitment live on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. Unfortunately for Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks, it was not the Oregon hat that Atkinson pulled on.

The Michigan basketball program is currently gearing up for what they hope will be a successful 2025-26 season. The Wolverines are coming off of a 2024-25 season in which they made the Sweet 16 under first year head coach Dusty May but saw considerable talent head to the NBA Draft this past June.

Wolverine fans likely can’t help but reminisce about the days of the “Fab Five,” led by Chris Webber in the early 1990s. Recently, Webber stopped by ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter’s podcast and discussed what impact that NIL rules (Name, image, and likeness) may have had on the Fab Five’s success three decades ago.

“If somebody could have paid you now multiple millions of dollars to stay in school…” wondered Schefter.

“To stay with Jalen, Juwan, Ray, and Jimmy? What are you talking about, yes we could’ve extended and we would have gotten an NIL for all of our players. We would’ve had our 12th man with an NIL deal because we loved our teammates that much,” said Webber. “You know, almost like a quarterback giving his offensive linemen go-karts or whatever. Two more years to be able to be kids? Yeah.”

Webber himself was caught up in an incident where he was accused of borrowing money from Michigan booster Ed Martin, something that never would have been an issue now with the current name, image, and likeness rules in place.

Joining Webber as members of the Fab Five were Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson, who helped lead the team to championship game appearances in both 1992 and 1993.

Unfortunately, those Final Four appearances were vacated due to Webber’s incident with Martin.

Today’s college sports landscape is drastically different, with players routinely inking deals in the millions to allow themselves to benefit off of their name and image, and with the transfer portal now affording players an opportunity to take their talents elsewhere much more easily.

Jackson Stone is a sports journalist for ClutchPoints with expertise in covering the NBA, NFL, and CAA Football. The Mercer University senior from Atlanta is on track to graduate with a BA in communications, and he has bylines at FanSided and USA Today Sports’ Georgia athletics website.

Rock Hill, S.C. – Winthrop head men’s soccer coach Daniel Ridenhour announced a 20-game slate for 2025 that includes three exhibitions.
 
The Eagles will have 10 home contests that consists of two exhibitions and eight regular season matches. 

Winthrop kicks off its exhibition schedule on Saturday, Aug. 9 as it travels to Statesboro, Ga. to take on Georgia Southern. The next two exhibitions will be on Eagle Field as the Eagles host Mercer (Aug. 11) and UNC Wilmington (Aug. 16).

 

The regular season begins with three consecutive home games starting with Coastal Carolina on Aug. 21 followed by Campbell (Aug. 24) and Georgia State (Aug. 30). The remainder of the non-conference home slate includes Wofford (Sept. 13) and College of Charleston (Oct. 14).

 

The non-conference road schedule begins Sept. 5 with a trip to Queens followed by a trip down to Columbia, S.C. to take on South Carolina on Sept. 9. The remaining non-conference road games are ETSU (Oct. 8), Virginia Tech (Oct. 22) and Furman (Oct. 28).

 

Eagles begin Big South action on the road at Gardner-Webb on Sept. 20. Winthrop will also travel to Presbyterian College (Oct. 11), Longwood (Oct. 17) and High Point (Nov. 1) in league play.

 

The conference home opener is Sept. 27 against USC Upstate. The Eagles will also host Radford (Oct. 4) and UNC Asheville (Oct. 25).

 

The Big South Conference Championship will be Nov. 5-15 with the Top 6 teams of the regular season standings qualifying for the tournament. The quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game will all be played on the home field of the higher seed.

 

For the 2025 season, all home games at Eagle Field will be free admission.

 

Watch The Eagles Live

Select home and away Big South matches will air live through the Big South Network on ESPN+. To watch live on ESPN+ you must be a subscriber. For more information on how to subscribe, click here. Select non-conference games on the road will be available to watch on various platforms. Links will be made available on the women’s soccer schedule (when made available) on winthropeagles.com.  

 

Follow The Eagles On Social

To keep up with the latest news on the Winthrop men’s soccer program follow the Eagles on X (@Winthropsoccer), Instagram (@WinthropSoccer) and Facebook (/WinthropUniversitySoccer)