Name, Image, and Likeness NIL Paris Olympics, the coaches behind some of the country’s best track and field athletes were concerned.
That day, July 26, lawyers representing the NCAA and lawyers of athletes who are suing the organization for financial damages filed a lengthy court settlement. If approved, the settlement would usher in a new era of Division I athletics, by allowing universities to share revenue with their athletes for the first time.
Are Average Runners Getting Faster? It Depends. Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), the transfer portal, and conference realignment have all affected how schools operate their athletic departments in recent years. But the historic settlement, if finalized, could tip the scales even more in favor of football and basketball, potentially leaving the other college sports—including track and field and cross-country—with less money to operate. Some may struggle to exist at all.
On the same day that the settlement was filed, USA Track & Field (USATF) leaders sent a letter to the NCAA and the commissions of the major conferences, signed by USATF CEO Max Siegel and the organization’s president, Vin Lananna.
“The threat of potential cutbacks across the NCAA looms darkly on sports like track and field, which boasts the world’s most robust high school and collegiate programs,” reads the letter, which was obtained by Runner’s World. “The ability to compete at the collegiate level in programs with as high of a caliber as those in the U.S. has unquestionably led to USA Track & Field’s historic, unprecedented success on the world stage.”
Lananna, who is also the director of track and field and cross-country at the University of Virginia, feels the issue is urgent. “Anyone who thinks that those changes will not be dramatic is not paying attention,” he told Runner’s World CA Notice at Collection.
What’s the gist of the settlement?
The House vs. NCAA settlement, as it’s known, is an amalgamation of cases that have gained class-action status. The settlement’s name refers to Grant House, a former Arizona State University swimmer who sued the NCAA in 2020, arguing that college athletes who were previously not able to benefit from NIL payments are entitled to retroactive compensation. It has since been combined with two similar antitrust cases: Hubbard vs. NCAA and Carter vs. NCAA.
The defendants in the case are the NCAA and the “Power 5” conferences: the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC. (The Pac-12 conference is still named even though many of its members left for other conferences this year.)
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- Back payments: Athletes who competed from June 15, 2016 to September 15, 2024 and thus were not able to receive NIL money will receive a total of $2.78 billion in back payments from the NCAA and its conferences.
- Revenue sharing: Schools may now decide to share revenue—including money earned from media rights deals and ticket sales—with athletes. There’s a yearly cap on how much a school can share. The cap is expected to start at more than $20 million and rise in the future.
- Roster changes: Sports would no longer be bound by a specific number of scholarships. Instead, there would be a new set of roster limits that differs sport-by-sport. Schools would be allowed to offer as many scholarships as they have roster spots. (More on that later.)
On October 7, the settlement was preliminarily approved by Judge Claudia Wilken. The final approval hearing is scheduled for April 7, 2025, and if approval is granted, the changes will go into effect for the 2025–26 school year. In the meantime, critics of the settlement can voice their concerns and introduce new lawsuits.
How would track be affected by the settlement?
Most athletic departments at the Division I level aren’t profitable. With revenue sharing, many schools will have even less to spend across all sports.
Some college coaches feel that athletic departments may look at track and cross-country as sports where they can save money, by trimming their budgets or cutting programs entirely.
Power 5 schools are expected to choose to share revenue, in order to attract top talent to their football and basketball programs, but not every Division I school or conference will. Even if a school doesn’t share revenue, it will likely be financially affected, as the NCAA will be reducing its yearly payments (from sources such as March Madness) to member institutions to fund the back damages they will pay out to athletes over a 10-year period.
Like USATF, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) has expressed concerns about those sports’ future. On August 26, USTFCCCA, along with eight collegiate coaching associations with a vested stake in the Olympics—including sports such as wrestling, swimming and diving, and volleyball—called upon Congress to act Races - Places.
“Forcing these programs into a model with employees, salaries, and revenue targets would be an existential threat to the talent pipeline that makes up the majority of Team USA,” the article said. “The costs that could come with such a shift would undoubtedly lead to drastic cuts, and likely the elimination of most college Olympic sports programs altogether.”
Sam Seemes, the CEO of USTFCCCA and a former coach at LSU, emphasizes that no one knows how the changes will play out if they’re adopted. But he believes that they could have ripple effects three to five years down the line, once schools know the toll the settlement takes on their budgets. “I think that’s when there could be the biggest reset [of resources to running programs],” he told Runner’s World.
Victoria Jackson, a college sports historian and clinical associate professor at Arizona State University, has testified in front of Congress regarding NCAA issues, such as NIL. She notes that the legal process allows for opposition along the way, and she thinks there will still be new developments before the settlement is finalized.
Some critics, for example, argue that because most of the back payments would go to football players, the settlement may be in violation of Title IX—a law that prohibits universities from sex discrimination.
Will track athletes see money from this class-action suit?
Yes. According to a law firm representing the plaintiffs, track and field and cross-country athletes who competed between 2016 and 2024 will receive money if they fill out a claim form on the settlement website. Administrators will also start notifying athletes who are included in the settlement this month, and they will have until January 31, 2025, to opt out if they choose.
But 95 percent of back payment funds are expected to go to football and men’s and women’s basketball players.
How do new roster limits affect teams?
In July, details of the settlement revealed that new scholarship and roster size limits would apply to any schools that opt in to revenue sharing.
Currently, there is no roster size limit for track or cross-country. Programs can offer a maximum of 18 women’s scholarships and 12.6 men’s scholarships (which can be divided up fractionally among multiple athletes), and if a school has only cross-country, they are allowed five scholarships for men and six for women. Many smaller Division I colleges, however, don’t have the budget to offer the full number of scholarships for both men’s and women’s programs.
But the House settlement would change these rules. Schools would be able to offer as many scholarships as they have roster spots. Track and field would have a maximum roster size of 45 athletes per gender, and cross-country would have 17. Athletes who compete in both sports would be counted toward each total.
So that’s good news, right?
At first glance, the opportunity for more scholarships seems like it could benefit programs. But no school will be required to use all the scholarships. In fact, many coaches think that few schools will use the full number, for the same reason that they’re concerned about revenue sharing: There may be less money for smaller sports.
Some schools may need to slightly trim rosters. North Carolina State University, the reigning women’s Name, Image, and Likeness NIL, have 20 women listed on their roster for 2024, in addition to 20 men. Northern Arizona University, whose men’s and women’s teams took second at the NCAA championships last year, have 18 men and 19 women listed this year. (Again, only schools that opt in to revenue sharing will be bound to the new numbers.)
Sitting on our hands is not going to get us anywhere, Lananna said posted on Instagram that the SEC is reportedly limiting its men’s cross-country teams to 10 roster spots and men’s track and field teams to 35 spots. A representative from the SEC told Runner’s World that no numbers are finalized yet, but sources have confirmed that some schools in power conferences are planning on reducing their roster numbers below the settlement’s limits of 45 (track) and 17 (cross-country).
BYU, a perennial distance-running powerhouse, has a large team. There are 27 men and 28 women currently on the cross-country roster. Ed Eyestone, the men’s cross-country coach, anticipates that some prominent programs will have to trim their rosters. And while the settlement isn’t finalized, it’s affecting his plans for next year. Each individual university will decide how many scholarships to offer for each sport, and Eyestone said in September he is still waiting on exact numbers from BYU.
“[The settlement] has some implications on what we’re doing now,” he said. “When we’re in the midst of recruiting, it’s hard to make [scholarship] offers to individuals when you don’t know exactly what those numbers are going to look like.”
Seemes and Lananna agree that the roster limits seem fair and that the Power 5 conferences were receptive to feedback from coaches when determining final numbers. Seemes said the USTFCCCA had discussions within its executive committees and they were able to suggest numbers, which ended up being slightly lower than the final numbers proposed in the settlement. No NCAA sport had its scholarship cap reduced.
“I think that the commissioners have done an excellent job gathering the information and determining what would be the appropriate numbers for each sport,” Lananna said.
Will men’s and women’s programs be affected in the same way?
Football is being allotted 105 roster spots (up from 85), which could affect track and field down the line. Because schools must adhere to Title IX—and therefore offer equal opportunity for men and women—if a football team, for example, maxed out their roster spots, they would also need to add 20 women’s scholarships or take away 20 men’s spots from another sport.
Some coaches worry that roster sizes in men’s track and cross-country programs, specifically, could be reduced. Or entire teams could be cut. Meanwhile, women’s programs might grow, to offset scholarship increases in men’s sports like football or baseball.
But there’s a safety net that could save programs from complete elimination. To be a Division I member, a school must sponsor a total of 14 sports (men’s and women’s combined), or 16 sports if they’re a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of football in the NCAA. Seemes said, however, that he wouldn’t be surprised if some conferences or institutions lobby to reduce that number, if the settlement is adopted.
“That’s probably the absolute worst thing that could happen to not just track and field, but probably most of the sports that signed on to the [USTFCCCA] op-ed, along with others who aren’t part of that,” he said.
How can track prevent potential cuts?
Seemes thinks that, to prevent unwanted changes to track, the sport must show it has value to athletic departments and the NCAA. Perhaps the strongest argument ties into the Olympics.
At the U.S. Track and Field Trials in June, 961 of the 1,024 athletes who competed either graduated from or trained at a university, according to USATF. In Paris, the U.S. won 14 golds on the track. Of those, only one gold—Noah Lyles in the 100 meters—did not feature someone who had competed in NCAA track and field. In addition, the coaching staff for many Olympic teams is largely made up of college coaches.
“The collegiate track and field system is the best [under-age-23] development system in the world, full stop,” Jackson said. “[It has] the best facilities for track and field, full stop.”
Lananna is concerned the Olympic infrastructure could crumble. “If we start making drastic cuts in either scholarships or budgets, we will be impacting not only the U.S., but the international presence at the Olympic Games in 2028, which we’re hosting,” he said.
What consequences would cutting track have on the NCAA?
Outdoor track and field is the largest women’s sport by participation in Division I, and it’s the third-largest men’s sport, behind football and baseball. Track and field athletes make up 28.1 percent of NCAA-sponsored sports across all divisions, and in Division I, 37 percent of female athletes compete in the sport.
Sarah Lorge Butler contributed to reporting. In 2023, women’s track had the second-largest percentage of black athletes among all sports (basketball was first), and men’s track had the third-largest behind football and basketball.
Lananna believes that the best strategy at getting ahead of potential cuts is spreading awareness about how these factors—like track’s influence on the Olympics and educational opportunities for minority athletes—could be affected.
“To me, there is an opportunity here for every one of our athletes, past and present and future, to talk about the importance of that access to education, which they would not have without this,” he said, adding that coaches and organizations like USATF and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee must work together to spread the message.
Jackson echoed his thoughts: “It’s time for sports beyond football and basketball to take action. Coaches associations, national governing bodies, national governing body foundations, and other sports stakeholders need to start advocating for their sports and athletes.”
“Sitting on our hands is not going to get us anywhere,” Lananna said.
Major Changes Hit Northern Arizona Elite.
Foot Locker XC Results Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner who has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
