BEDMINSTER, N.J. – There is confidence from Great Schiano that the recent House v. NCAA settlement will bring some much-needed structure to the NIL space. The Rutgers football head coach believes that there are still hurdles to clear, but at least there is now oversite to the process.

In short, the House v. NCAA settlement that was settled last week paves the way for college to pay athletes directly. And with Schiano having been on the record for a while in favor of college athletes receiving compensation, this is a good step for everyone according to the Rutgers head coach.

A big part of the settlement allows for a clearinghouse that will oversee Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) contracts for all NCAA athletes. Schiano called it “big news for everybody.”

”We were instructed to operate under those guidelines now for a while,” Schiano said on Monday prior to the start of his charity golf classic at Fiddler’s Elbow.

”So, you know, the bigger, bigger news would have been if it didn’t happen. There would have been a lot of people scrambling, right? So certainly, there’s a lot that still has to happen in a short, short amount of time. And when you look at the clearinghouse and then you look at the enforcement arm that is going to be in charge of the financial things, there’s so much that has to get done in a short amount of time.

”And I think it will be transitional. I think there’ll be some growing pains, but there’s always growing pains. You know, change is hard, but change is necessary. What my job is – is not to worry about the whole country. My job is to make sure that I know how to maneuver for Rutgers the best way possible. And that’s what I have my focus on. And that’s what our, my whole group of people in our organization, are focused on is how do we make this work best for Rutgers.”

The clearinghouse alluded to by Schiano is key to the settlement. Any third-party deal over $600 in NIL will go under the review of Deloitte, a multi-national firm that provides auditing and consulting services to many Fortune 500 companies.

According to the settlement, ”Deloitte will evaluate third-party NIL deals using a 12-factor analysis.” For Rutgers, this could be good news.

Not surprisingly, NIL has wandered far away from its originally intent, with athletes being paid huge sums of money through collectives. These deals often offer little in return to the collectives and are merely an extension of boosters who want to land top-tier recruits and players for their school.

A clearinghouse – and potential arbitration – could bring this a bit under control. It could bring competition back on the football side.

That doesn’t impact Schiano right now, who has been operating within the understanding of football’s cut of the $20.5 million revenue share. And while that number isn’t public knowledge, football is far and away the biggest generator of income within the athletic department.

With Rutgers looking for a new athletic director, the new hire could potentially change the revenue share cut for football. It would seem counterintuitive to do so, but in the here and now Schiano is focused on adapting the new model to his team.

”Well, look, things can change. Right? When leadership changes, things can change,” Schiano said.

”I’ve been operating under a set of guidelines that, at least for this year, has to stay consistent. But again, you know, I know my role. I’m the football coach, and that’s, that’s what I do. So I have to always advocate for our program, and then whatever the plan is, then I have to operate within that point. And right now, we know what the plan is for this year, and then from there, we’ll figure it all out. But again, I’m excited about the young men that we’re attracting to Rutgers.”

Fisk University, the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) to launch a collegiate gymnastics team, has announced it will discontinue the program after the 2025-2026 academic year.

The Nashville-based university shared the news in a press release on June 6, stating the decision follows a review of how the sport aligns with Fisk’s broader athletic goals. Since gymnastics is not sanctioned by the HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC), the program faced “considerable challenges to schedule competitions and build a robust recruiting pipeline,” according to the university.

Fisk Athletics Director Valencia Jordan said in the release, “While we are tremendously proud of the history our gymnastics team has made in just three years, we look forward to focusing on our conference-affiliated teams to strengthen our impact in the HBCU Athletic Conference. Fisk is grateful for the hard work, dedication and tenacity of its gymnasts, staff members and coaches who made this program possible.”

The program launched in January 2023 and quickly became a powerful symbol of representation for Black girls in a sport where diversity has long been lacking. Despite its short run, the team made a national impact. Gymnast Morgan Price, who recently transferred from Fisk to the University of Arkansas, made history in 2024 as the first athlete from an HBCU to win the all-around title at the USA Gymnastics Women’s Collegiate National Championships. She defended her title in 2025 and swept individual apparatus events that year, according to The Tennessean.

“It feels good because of the hard work that has been put in,” Price said in a Fisk press release in 2024. “Honestly, I didn’t know where I would place, but it was a pleasant surprise. I have heard from a lot of people so far. I am still trying to take all this in.”

Price, along with teammates Allie Berkley, Aliyah Reed-Hammon and Ciniah Rosby, earned first-team All-American honors for the 2025 season.

However, behind the scenes, the program struggled. The team dealt with resource limitations for training and travel,according to Sports Illustrated. Founding head coach Corrine Tarver left midseason in 2024 and is expected to take a new position on the East Coast.

The news comes at a time when HBCU gymnastics remains fragile. Talladega College shut down its program after one season. Wilberforce University debuted its team in 2025, marking only the third gymnastics program at an HBCU.

Fisk says it plans to support its student-athletes and staff during the transition and will celebrate the program’s accomplishments throughout the 2025-2026 season. 

While the team’s run may be coming to an end, its legacy lives on. For Black girls who saw themselves in the sport for the first time, Fisk gymnastics showed what was possible. It also raised questions about sustainability, funding and long-term investment in programs that break barriers. With its founding athletes expected to graduate in 2026, the team leaves behind more than trophies; it leaves behind a blueprint and a community that saw their reflection on the mat.

There’s no question I’ve written a version of this sentence before, but there are few coaches who have earned the benefit of the doubt like Kirby Smart.

Last season, Jalon Walker made 60 tackles and garnered second-team All-SEC recognition. Smael Mondon Jr. posted 57 stops, and they helped UGA both win a conference title and make the College Football Playoff.

Both of them are gone, and Georgia—well, it’s not concerned.

CJ Allen registered 76 tackles in 2024 as Raylen Wilson had a mini-breakout year with 47 takedowns (7.0 for loss) and Chris Cole chipped in 16 stops. As if that’s not enough, Justin Williams and newcomer Zayden Walker were 5-star signings. Georgia just needs one of them to contribute in a small role, barring injuries.

The linebacker pipeline in Athens is flowing right along.

College Sports

“I think it’s in some ways relief that it’s here, that we can move forward, that we can meet this moment.”

By Amin Touri, The Boston Globe

June 11, 2025 | 9:12 AM

5 minutes to read

After more than a decade of creeping change and shifting winds in college sports, the biggest reshaping of the landscape arrived Friday.

Federal judge Claudia Wilken signed off on a settlement resolving three antitrust compensation cases brought against the NCAA. Now, schools will be allowed to pay athletes directly — rather than under the guise of name, image, and likeness (NIL) — as soon as next month.

Along with schools gaining the ability to share up to $20.5 million with athletes per year, the NCAA is on the hook for nearly $2.8 billion in back pay to former athletes — long barred from compensation for their athletic performance — over the next 10 years.

The football powerhouses in the Big Ten and SEC — and their massive television deals — have prompted much of the seismic shift in college athletics that resulted in this settlement. But the changes are felt throughout the NCAA, including in Massachusetts.

It’s particularly significant for Boston College and UMass, the state’s two institutions that compete in FBS, the highest level of college football, each of which has spent several months preparing for sweeping change after the deal was initially approved in October before a lengthy hold-up.

“It’s been a little bit of what we would call, ‘Hurry up and wait,’ ” said UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford. “I think it’s in some ways relief that it’s here, that we can move forward, that we can meet this moment.”

While athletes will still be able to earn money through the NIL deals that have taken over collegiate athletics, the ability to pay athletes directly is a monumental shift.

How universities will handle payments is the first question on the agenda, particularly at the state’s flagship university, which has to contend with the added wrinkle of public funding and the scrutiny that comes with it.

“You’re building the systems, the policies, the procedures, working with campus infrastructure,” Bamford said. “Our student-athletes aren’t employees, so they don’t fit into the HR model. You can’t pay through financial aid, because — you can pay scholarships and room and board and tuition and fees and things like that — but anything that’s rev share is above and beyond. So you’ve got to get the tax people, the Treasury people, the general counsel, to look at your agreement.“

While college football’s powerhouses are certain to max out the $20.5 million they can dole out to athletes, that likely won’t be the case at UMass — that number would represent close to 40 percent of the total operating budget of an athletic department such as UMass’s.

Boston College athletic director Blake James wouldn’t get into specifics on how much the school expects to be paying athletes for the 2025-26 academic year, saying “it’s too early to really know,” while confirming BC’s participation in revenue sharing.

UMass, meanwhile, will be looking to spend between $6 million and $8 million in the first year and in the $10 million-$12 million range in the second, with the long-term goal to be spending around 60 percent of the cap.

“If we’re at 60 percent of whatever [the cap] continues to grow to, we’re probably in a really good, healthy Group of Five position,” Bamford said. “The MAC is not going to spend a ton of money, but we want to be where maybe some of the lower Big East, lower Power Fours are in basketball, and then in football.

“We want to be competitive with the Group of Five. I think we can be in the top, probably, 20 percent of the Group of Five in football with our number. So, you know, that’s certainly a goal.”

Another question is how schools will divide the money within their own department, with a lion’s share of the cash at FBS schools likely heading into football pockets. That’s an especially unique challenge at BC, which has to compete against some of college football’s best in the ACC, while its greatest success has come not on the field but on the ice.

The men’s hockey team boasts five national championships and reached the national title game again in 2024, while the women have made six Frozen Fours since 2010.

“We’re the only team in the ACC that has ice hockey,” James said. “So we’re going to continue to evolve under this new college athletics approach consistent with who we are as an institution, and part of that is recognizing the importance that ice hockey means to us at Boston College and as part of our athletic program.”

It’s possible the new rules could provide an opportunity to BC’s city rivals on the ice at Boston University and Northeastern — neither of which has a football team to fund — to gain some ground. The fourth member of the Beanpot quartet, Harvard, could be looking at a further slip among its rivals, as the Ivy League has opted out of revenue sharing, which Harvard confirmed to the Globe this week.

UMass, another Hockey East competitor, with its most recent national relevance coming through men’s hockey (a Frozen Four in 2019 and a national championship in 2021), will also skew more of its money toward hockey and what arguably remains the Minutemen’s biggest brand, men’s basketball.

The most common formula thrown around in recent months has been that schools will look to use around 75 percent of the money on football, 15 percent on men’s basketball, 5 percent on women’s basketball, and the remaining 5 percent elsewhere.

UMass, Bamford said, won’t be that high in football, with greater slices of the pie given to men’s and women’s basketball, as well as hockey.

“Over time, it’ll sort itself out,” Bamford said. “When you make the jump, the formula and the ratios and the percentages are a little bit skewed. But for instance, we’re going to fund, probably $2.5 million on our women’s sports just in scholarships alone.

”We’ve kind of let each coach determine how they want to do it and based on the budget. And I think our coaches are feeling like in talking to their peers, especially in the Group of Five, that we’re in a really strong spot.”

There are plenty of concerns to go around, from how new roster limits rules will affect walk-ons to the effects the settlement could have on Olympic sports, where collegiate athletic programs have long produced some of the nation’s best athletes without generating a lot of revenue in return.

For James, whose place as a Power Four AD means competing with the nation’s true powers, the primary concern is how schools are going to toe the line.

“I think my concerns would be … the enforcement,“ he said. “I think if everyone follows the rules of the settlement, I think it will put college athletics into a better place than it’s been in some time. With that said, I think there’s always opportunities for people to work around the intent of what has been put in place, whether it’s through the letter of the rule, or just something that they feel that they have to do in their best interest.

“And I would say that’s my biggest concern: How do we get everyone to support and embrace this and give college athletics a chance to grow in this whole new world?”

The football powerhouses in the Big Ten and SEC — and their massive television deals — have prompted much of the seismic shift in college athletics that resulted in this settlement. But the changes are felt throughout the NCAA, including in Massachusetts.

It’s particularly significant for Boston College and UMass, the state’s two institutions that compete in FBS, the highest level of college football, each of which has spent several months preparing for sweeping change after the deal was initially approved in October before a lengthy hold-up.

“It’s been a little bit of what we would call, ‘Hurry up and wait,’ ” said UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford. “I think it’s in some ways relief that it’s here, that we can move forward, that we can meet this moment.”

While athletes will still be able to earn money through the NIL deals that have taken over collegiate athletics, the ability to pay athletes directly is a monumental shift.

How universities will handle payments is the first question on the agenda, particularly at the state’s flagship university, which has to contend with the added wrinkle of public funding and the scrutiny that comes with it.

“You’re building the systems, the policies, the procedures, working with campus infrastructure,” Bamford said. “Our student-athletes aren’t employees, so they don’t fit into the HR model. You can’t pay through financial aid, because — you can pay scholarships and room and board and tuition and fees and things like that — but anything that’s rev share is above and beyond. So you’ve got to get the tax people, the Treasury people, the general counsel, to look at your agreement.“

While college football’s powerhouses are certain to max out the $20.5 million they can dole out to athletes, that likely won’t be the case at UMass — that number would represent close to 40 percent of the total operating budget of an athletic department such as UMass’s.

Boston College athletic director Blake James wouldn’t get into specifics on how much the school expects to be paying athletes for the 2025-26 academic year, saying “it’s too early to really know,” while confirming BC’s participation in revenue sharing.

UMass, meanwhile, will be looking to spend between $6 million and $8 million in the first year and in the $10 million-$12 million range in the second, with the long-term goal to be spending around 60 percent of the cap.

“If we’re at 60 percent of whatever [the cap] continues to grow to, we’re probably in a really good, healthy Group of Five position,” Bamford said. “The MAC is not going to spend a ton of money, but we want to be where maybe some of the lower Big East, lower Power Fours are in basketball, and then in football.

“We want to be competitive with the Group of Five. I think we can be in the top, probably, 20 percent of the Group of Five in football with our number. So, you know, that’s certainly a goal.”

Another question is how schools will divide the money within their own department, with a lion’s share of the cash at FBS schools likely heading into football pockets. That’s an especially unique challenge at BC, which has to compete against some of college football’s best in the ACC, while its greatest success has come not on the field but on the ice.

The men’s hockey team boasts five national championships and reached the national title game again in 2024, while the women have made six Frozen Fours since 2010.

“We’re the only team in the ACC that has ice hockey,” James said. “So we’re going to continue to evolve under this new college athletics approach consistent with who we are as an institution, and part of that is recognizing the importance that ice hockey means to us at Boston College and as part of our athletic program.”

It’s possible the new rules could provide an opportunity to BC’s city rivals on the ice at Boston University and Northeastern — neither of which has a football team to fund — to gain some ground. The fourth member of the Beanpot quartet, Harvard, could be looking at a further slip among its rivals, as the Ivy League has opted out of revenue sharing, which Harvard confirmed to the Globe this week.

UMass, another Hockey East competitor, with its most recent national relevance coming through men’s hockey (a Frozen Four in 2019 and a national championship in 2021), will also skew more of its money toward hockey and what arguably remains the Minutemen’s biggest brand, men’s basketball.

The most common formula thrown around in recent months has been that schools will look to use around 75 percent of the money on football, 15 percent on men’s basketball, 5 percent on women’s basketball, and the remaining 5 percent elsewhere.

UMass, Bamford said, won’t be that high in football, with greater slices of the pie given to men’s and women’s basketball, as well as hockey.

“Over time, it’ll sort itself out,” Bamford said. “When you make the jump, the formula and the ratios and the percentages are a little bit skewed. But for instance, we’re going to fund, probably $2.5 million on our women’s sports just in scholarships alone.

”We’ve kind of let each coach determine how they want to do it and based on the budget. And I think our coaches are feeling like in talking to their peers, especially in the Group of Five, that we’re in a really strong spot.”

There are plenty of concerns to go around, from how new roster limits rules will affect walk-ons to the effects the settlement could have on Olympic sports, where collegiate athletic programs have long produced some of the nation’s best athletes without generating a lot of revenue in return.

For James, whose place as a Power Four AD means competing with the nation’s true powers, the primary concern is how schools are going to toe the line.

“I think my concerns would be … the enforcement,“ he said. “I think if everyone follows the rules of the settlement, I think it will put college athletics into a better place than it’s been in some time. With that said, I think there’s always opportunities for people to work around the intent of what has been put in place, whether it’s through the letter of the rule, or just something that they feel that they have to do in their best interest.

“And I would say that’s my biggest concern: How do we get everyone to support and embrace this and give college athletics a chance to grow in this whole new world?”

Amin Touri can be reached at amin.touri@globe.com.