NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — After a year of court hearings, Tennessee and other states have agreed to a settlement with the NCAA over rules regarding paying athletes. NewsChannel 5 sat down with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to get an idea of what this settlement might mean for college athletics.
"There’s more and more money involved. Student-athletes are the only people not making money out of this," said Skrmetti, Tennessee's Attorney General.
Last Year, Skrmetti sued the NCAA after they started to investigate the University of Tennessee and how they recruited star Quarterback Nico Iamaleava. "The rules that they had prevented athletes from negotiating NIL [Name, Image, and Likeness] deals until after they committed to a school. And that’s a violation of federal antitrust law," said Skrmetti. "You can’t limit people from taking advantage of the benefits of market competition in that way."
A judge agreed and issued an injunction essentially blocking the NCAA from enforcing any rules involving athletes being paid for their name, image, and likeness. "You know the NCAA is pretty arbitrary in enforcement, some schools get on their bad side, some schools can do no wrong. It’s just not right," said General Skrmetti.
The official lawsuit settlement still has to be finalized by a judge, but we asked General Skrmetti what he could share about the lawsuit. He said they wouldn't have agreed to a settlement unless the NCAA agreed to end the NIL rules Tennessee and the other states had issues with. "I think this reflects the NCAA finally acknowledging there has to be a change," said Skrmetti.
Reforms are just beginning
This issue is far from over. Skrmetti thinks this lawsuit removes many of the problematic rules the NCAA had been enforcing inconsistently, but he thinks more permanent rules need to go into place. "This settlement does not solve the problem entirely. What this settlement does, what this case does is stop the NCAA from having exploitative rules that don’t make sense, that hurt the student-athletes," he said.
The NCAA has another lawsuit, called the House Settlement, that also needs to be finalized to establish profit sharing between schools and student-athletes.
The Attorney General admits it may take more litigation or even legislation to make a big change. "This is solving one particular problem but the overall system needs more work," said Skrmetti.
"So, that may include additional legal action from your office, potentially?" asked NewsChannel 5.
"If necessary," replied Skrmetti. "This does not need to be a battle of the lawyers for a generation."
Skrmetti says Congress may also need to step in and pass a national framework.
Big questions remain — like how will smaller schools afford to pay players when they don't even make a profit? How can you allow freedom in the transfer portal while keeping it fair for the schools to protect their investments?
The only clear thing, especially for sports fans, is that the game is changing whether they like it or not. "This is sort of the tentative first steps, but the overall shape of what college athletics is going to look like is still yet to be determined," said Skrmetti.
NewsChannel 5's Steve Layman did an in-depth series on paying athletes last summer. Use these links to watch Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.
With new technology comes new ways to help people. This story shows a great use of AI that is starting to be rolled out in Tennessee. This one can help those who may be blind, deaf or neurodiverse navigate the Tennessee State Library and Archives from an app on their smart phone.
-Lelan Statom
