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As of right now, the Tigers are back on Bally on Comcast. Huge deal. For those who’ve followed, this may be a short lived celebration as the bankruptcy court has to decide in 2 day if Bally’s can continue to operate with 8B in debt. More to come.
yesterday’s blog focused on the proposed line combinations that seem to have gathered some online consensus. Specifically, the top 6 with both Debrincat and Raymond on line one and Kane/Tarasenko on the wings of line 2. Seems like you may want a right shot winger on each but there isn’t much pushback from fans so it’s a “let it go” moment.
Detroit, along with most if not all NHL teams, has prospects in the collegiate system. Full scholarships, a different type of development and an invaluable available degree are afforded to those players. They also have what many recognize as an odd road to becoming a UFA should they decide they want to play for a different organization. Things may be changing in that landscape.
Months ago, the NCAA made a settlement offer to collegiate athletes of 2.77 Billion dollars. This same settlement unlocked the doors for paid athletics. There were obvious questions about who would get how much and over the weekend the AP broke down some highlights.
The associated press reported the following:
The class-action lawsuit covers more 400,000 former and current college athletes from all sports, dating to 2026. Payments will be determined by sport played, conference competed in, when and for how long.
The range of damage payments vary widely, with football and men’s basketball players who competed in the so-called Power Five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC) are set to receive the largest sums. Many will be in line to recover more than $100,000. Plaintiffs’ attorneys say at least one athlete is estimated to be eligible for $1.8 million.
Women’s college basketball players are next, with payments estimated to range from about $15,000 to potentially a few hundred thousand each.
Football and basketball players from top conferences and schools outside the Power Five could receive a few thousand dollars each on average; Power Five baseball players are estimated to be eligible to receive an average of about $400.
Athletes in other sports might only be eligible for less than $100.
Ok, back to the blogosphere. We’re seeing pretty much what we thought would be the case except that one player may get 1.8B of that 2.77B settlement. Moving forward:
The settlement includes an agreement by the major conferences and NCAA to allow schools to distribute about $21 million in athletic revenue back to athletes each year, starting in fall 2025.
The amount is expected to increase as athletic revenues increase at power conference schools. Schools will decide how they want to distribute that money among their athletes and how they deal with Title IX gender equity requirements.
The settlement also allows for the NCAA and conferences to implement rules against schools circumventing that cap and regulate how boosters pay athletes for name, image and likeness deals.
That’s a lot to digest. Here is where it hits hockey: Athletes in other sports might only be eligible for less than $100.
“Other sports” are defined as those outside of men’s football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball. The majority of the money is headed to the “top five conferences” defined as:
ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC
So, you’re seeing what all of us suspected. The “meritocracy” of revenue generation is driving not only the settlement but the forward facing “paid to play” model. Hockey isn’t even specifically mentioned and falls into “other”. Now for the bad news.
Keep reading the article and you’ll find out the swap. Instead of scholarship limits, roster limits will now be in effect. Fewer spots for players, and scholarships that were once “full ride” may well be adjusted down up to 50%. The title IX argument was mentioned, but the box office and swag sales tell all. I live near Ann Arbor, and the “Big House” is packed for home games with 100k+ along with jersey and hat sales. Basketball is less, baseball is less. The pay discrepancy will become the rallying cry as fewer student athletes get offers due to the new plan.
For hockey players, this is fascinating. Denver, U of M, MSU, Boston, these are some of the high point development schools. The programs aren’t anything near the cash cow that football and basketball are. So, inadvertently fewer draftees with collegiate commitments will have the full ride opportunity. Who is this good for? Smaller schools in “lesser” conferences and jr. Pro. U of M will still get high end picks. Denver and Boston likely the same. Others may be more inclined to looks at Ferris State, Miami of Ohio, Northern Michigan etc. those programs could get a boost in talent simply by having open roster spots.
since 2021 Athletes have been able to seek sponsorship. The old model of athletes pretending to do a job paid by tax exempt donations may fall off. In fact, reviews on schools losing “tax exempt status” in many places is now up for debate. This is a wide sweeping issue.
There has been a massive uptick in WNBA viewership with the arrival of Kaitlin Clark that nearly didn’t happen as Clark’s Nike deal in college was incredibly lucrative. She was making more than a million per year. Now she has a 20+ million dollar deal that more than eclipses the league salary. Athletes have been getting endorsement money and “blue chip recruit” money for a while. It’s not a secret. Now, the NHL/NHLPA need to decide that if a player even makes $100 playing hockey does that alter the ability to offer ELC deals to lock in prospects going the collegiate route.
This is also a step backward in a personal opinion. Teams gave up roster spots and reduced scholarships. Elite athletes will make bank, but players needing more development may simply have to find another way. Teams will chime in, but this feels like a big hit to the collegiate path for non football/basketball/baseball players and players outside of the “big 5” conferences.
As always, let me know your thoughts and how you would address the potential changes. Pandora’s box had already lost its seal in terms of player compensation, now it’s about to blow wide open and buckle up for the arguments about distribution of that revenue.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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