🏅What a week it's been.

Hey there,

At last, the House Settlement has been approved… and today we’re going to give a brief overview of what that means, as well as the legislation that followed quickly after the deal was given the OK. Then we’re looking into EA’s genius new play to get people to buy their college football video game. It’s all coming up now – let’s go!

If you want a full explainer on the House Settlement, you can check that out here. We delivered this to our All-Access subscribers earlier this week, which you can become really easily (seriously, it’s less than a cup of coffee a month). Just click here to see pricing.

— Cole and Collin

The Big 3

House Settlement Quick Hits

The House Settlement was approved last week, and we wrote an entire explainer on it for our All-Access subscribers. We did, however, want to talk about the basics for everyone, headlined by the $2.8 billion that the NCAA and Power Conferences will be forced to pay back to athletes who participated in NCAA sports over the last eight years. 

There’s also the whole rev-share piece – universities will be able to divvy out about $20 million to pay student-athletes directly at their schools. That’s causing a lot of budget problems for athletic departments – even at legacy programs like Michigan.

Finally, the new College Sports Commission is officially in place, which will make sure everyone’s following the settlement’s rules. The Commission will be headed by former MLB executive Bryan Seeley, who was named CEO shortly after approval. (More)

Congress Scrambles for Post-House Legislation

Right after the House Settlement was approved, we saw lawmakers scrambled to put together college sports legislation. That legislation has now officially been introduced to Congress as the “College Student-Athlete Protections and Opportunities through Rights, Transparency and Safety Act.”

The College SPORTS Act, as it’s being called, is a bipartisan effort to wrangle much of the madness within the college sports landscape. When the House Settlement was approved, these lawmakers finally had guidelines for how to eliminate some of the uncertainty. 

One of the biggest parts of the College SPORTS Act involves codifying that student-athletes are not, in fact, employees – a huge disagreement to this point between many Democrats and Republicans working on college sports issues. (More)

EA’s Smart Play

When you play EA College Football 26 this year, you’ll actually be earning money for your school the more you play the game. The developers will be paying out schools relative to how much each team gets played with:

The idea is really enticing from a business standpoint. In the same way that certain NIL fundraising strategies incentivized people to buy “Penn State Beer” over Budweiser, EA is banking on fans to buy the game to support their team. It’s basically a win-win.

However, I wouldn’t expect these payouts to actually tilt football funding, because there’s really not that much money going out relative to how much you’d have to play. The best strategy for getting payouts is probably to be one of the best teams in the game so that average players will play with your team more often. (More)

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NIL BLITZ

♦️ ECU’s baseball coach says he has “proof” that there’s widespread tampering across college baseball

♦️ MLB executive Bryan Seeley will be CEO of the new College Sports Commission

♦️ Texas A&M wideout KC Concepcion nabbed a $2.5 million compensation package this offseason

♦️ Michigan is downsizing its athletic department following the House Settlement’s approval

♦️ Texas Tech has built a $250 million football facility, which GM James Blanchard calls a “football resort.”

♦️ How will the House Settlement affect Olympic sports?

♦️ Here’s what role arbitration will play in challenging the NIL clearinghouse’s determinations

♦️ NiJaree Canady is signing another million-dollar NIL deal to remain with Texas Tech softball

♦️ Toledo is requiring artificial intelligence training for their entire athletic department

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BATTER UP

Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

Will UNC be a top five team next year with a $14 million budget?

• Yes - 45%

• No - 55%