The shaky athlete pay system that upends the college sports model and how the millions of dollars are distributed is sure to raise questions of gender equity.
Of particular interest is whether schools must comply with Title IX, the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in any school or educational program that receives federal funds.
There are many questions in the coming months from the NCAA and major conferences Thursday night if the $2.77 billion housing and NCAA settlement is approved by a federal judge. Among other things, the deal is expected to allow the nation’s wealthiest schools to spend about $20 million annually on their own athletes starting next year.
Michael LeRoy, a professor of labor and sports law at Illinois, and Ileana Konidaris, a New York civil rights attorney, said Title IX rules would apply if the schools were responsible for managing pay for athletes.
Conidaris said the U.S. Department of Education’s guidance to the Office of Civil Rights on revenue sharing and how name, image and reputation compensation should be paid will be critical to keeping schools in compliance with Title IX.
“If the universities are going to control revenue sharing, you need to fix pay equity first,” Konidaris said.
Christina Stiliano, another New York civil rights attorney, said her initial impression is that Title IX doesn’t apply because athletes sell their media rights to their schools. That said, Stylianou expects the Title IX question to be hotly debated.
What is Title IX?
In the year The landmark Act of 1972 aimed to ensure equity in education between boys and girls. In the classroom, he looks at sexual harassment and assault on campus, employment, discrimination, admissions, financial aid from education and, of course, athletics.
Women’s and men’s teams must be treated equally under the rules, although this does not mean that each sport will have the same budget for equipment, facilities, travel or food. Athletic departments operate under a so-called “equal effect,” meaning that an advantage given to the men’s or women’s team in one area can be offset in another area “as long as the overall effect of any difference is negligible.”
LeRoy said he understands why football and men’s basketball players argue that they should receive a larger portion of future revenue because their sports cover all conference and NCAA broadcast rights.
He said it is hard to believe that there could be a 50-50 difference between male and female athletes if market value is heavily weighted when determining pay. But he said there should be provision for women.
“I’m not making the argument that it should be split evenly,” Leroy said. “Bringing this to the athletic department, I don’t expect the distribution to be equal. But if women change in a short time, there is an internal contradiction or problem.
America’s women’s soccer premier
The situation is reminiscent of the legal action taken by the U.S. women’s national soccer team to pay equal pay to the U.S. men’s team, Leroy said. The women’s team was first selected by the US Soccer Federation in 2011. He won a settlement claiming that the United States Soccer Federation violated the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national identity.
Although college athletes are not considered employees, Leroy and Konidaris said a legal argument could be made that direct payments from schools to athletics push athletes into employee status and that Title VII could apply.
“They’re going to have an idea in the neighborhood that this is not a job,” Leroy said. “So what you’re doing is that the multi-billion dollar industry called NCAA athletics is treated differently than any other business in America. You cannot have a separate payment.
If the schools choose not to make in-house payments and leave athletic compensation to booster groups looking to connect athletes and sponsorship money, that could be a way to comply with Title IX regulations.
Opportunity for women
Hours after the NCAA settlement was announced, Oklahoma softball player Tiare Jennings was asked about the significance of the move. She recommends safety for athletes after college.
“I think what they get out of college is to have a foundation, to have something for their future families, for themselves, to have some security blanket when they get out of college. To start a business to start your life, start things like that.”
Konidaris said schools that financially support their female athletes can develop strong women’s sports programs.
“Universities that double down on equity in college sports will be rewarded with better programs for female athletes that I think will be revenue generators over the next 10 years, based on public interest and initiatives in women’s sports,” Konidaris said. .
The recent surge in the popularity of women’s sports, fueled by the star power of basketball players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and others, couldn’t have come at a better time, Kondaris said. Female athletes, she said, should see the season as “an opportunity to be aggressive, to negotiate as much as possible and to get fair and just pay.”
Roy agreed it was a pivotal time for women’s sports.
“The question is, will they stick with a compensation model that reflects the future, not the past, for the next 10 years?” he said.
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AP Sports Writer Cliff Brunt contributed.
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