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Administrators and student-athletes joined Syracuse University’s Student Association for a Monday evening town hall discussing the future of college athletics during its final meeting of the fall semester.

Assembly members and attendees voiced uncertainty about potential changes to college sports, driven by recent legal battles over university-funded compensation of student athletes. The town hall featured Craig Tucker, the co-chair of the SU Senate Committee on Athletic Policy; Abby Perer, senior associate general counsel for the university; and Mary Graham, SU’s faculty athletic representative. Roughly a dozen college athletes were in attendance.

SU Chancellor Kent Syverud, who most recently discussed the impending NCAA changes at a Nov. 20 University Senate meeting, was absent from Monday’s town hall due to a scheduling conflict, SA President German Nolivos said. Senior Vice President and Chief Student Experience Officer Allen Groves attended the meeting but didn’t speak.

“People care about this … a lot of us come here because of the athletics and the school spirit. A lot of the fame that Syracuse has is because of sports,” Nolivos said. “I hope these types of initiatives bring more conversations to the table about these issues.”

On Oct. 7, a California district court judge gave preliminary approval to an almost $2.8 billion settlement in the House v. NCAA class action lawsuit. The settlement requires the NCAA to retroactively pay Power Four college athletes who competed between June 2016 and September 2024 and couldn’t profit from their name, image and likeness due to its amateurism rules.

If approved in April 2025, the NCAA will have to award impacted athletes $277 million annually over the next 10 years. The agreement also allows athletic departments the option to allocate up to $20 million to compensate athletes directly.

“The $20 million cap is, in the settlement, described as optional,” Perer said. “But to compete at the Power Four level, I think a lot of schools are going to be trying to pay up to the cap to stay competitive and stay relevant in the national conversation.”

Division I schools currently generate an average of $140 million annually from athletic programs, according to data presented by Graham during the meeting. The House settlement has left SU and other institutions to figure out how they will manage to create an additional $20 million to meet the cap.

During the town hall, attendees questioned how SU plans to handle a potential $20 million expense. They also inquired about how college athletes can stay informed about the ongoing litigation and whether the settlement would have a negative impact on sports that generate less revenue.

Peyton Rollins, a sophomore and member of SU’s Track and Field team, was among the group of athletes who attended Monday’s assembly meeting. Rollins raised concerns about SU’s plans to reallocate funds to cover the new expense, fearing that the changes could disproportionately affect women’s sports.

“We’re not going to be cutting from women’s sports and Olympic sports to pay football, that’s not going to be the approach here,” Graham said.

Perer said a significant majority of the $2.8 billion House settlement will likely go toward paying football players. The ruling doesn’t dictate what individual universities do with athlete revenue-sharing. However, since the House settlement will introduce roster limits, the university may need to “cut some participation spots.”

Students also asked about how the decision may impact non-athletes. Reed Granger, SA’s vice president, asked whether SU will move funding out of academic programs to accommodate the additional expense.

The speakers also discussed the proposed College Student Football League, an alternative college football format that Syverud has advocated for alongside a group of executives and university administrators in the College Sports Tomorrow coalition.

The CSFL plans to split the 136 current Football Bowl Subdivision schools into two conferences: the top 72 will make up the Power 12 Conference while the remaining 64 will form a Group of 8 Conference. The schools will then be divided into smaller geographic divisions.

One student asked whether SU as an institution supported a potential move to the CSFL. Perer said, because of Syverud’s unique position as a senior administrator, she believes his position would be “the university’s position as well.”

Tucker, Perer and Graham couldn’t answer many attendee questions, as the university is still working to determine how to address the NCAA’s fluid landscape. If the House settlement receives final approval, it will go into effect on July 1, 2025.

Ahead of the settlement potentially going into effect, they said they hope to conduct another town hall in the spring semester.

Other business:

• The assembly approved a bill aimed at expanding access to birth control and reproductive health services, first presented during last week’s meeting. The bill hopes to create a lasting solution for students to have access to reproductive healthcare. SA’s Finance Board completed its review of registered student organizations’ advanced allocation appeals. The Finance Board received 39 appeals — approving five, partially approving five and denying 29, Comptroller Alexis Leach said.
• Nolivos and Reed conducted their annual “State of the Student Body” address. They highlighted their efforts to support the student body amid “societal polarization on campus” through SA’s legislation — including its recent resolution to add caste as a protected identity under the university’s non-discrimination policy.

Published on December 10, 2024 at 1:09 am

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu