{"id":8481,"date":"2025-05-07T17:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T17:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/8481\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T17:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T17:39:10","slug":"athletes-left-in-dark-as-ncaa-settlement-leaves-murky-future-for-non-revenue-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/8481\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletes left in dark as NCAA settlement leaves murky future for non-revenue sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MAURA CAREY<\/p>\n

The $2.8 billion NCAA settlement<\/a> awaiting final approval from a federal judge is touted as a solution for thousands of athletes to finally get the money they deserve and provide some clarity to recruiting. For some, it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Sophomore distance runner Jake Rimmel says he was one of five walk-ons cut from Virginia Tech\u2019s cross country team after Thanksgiving break. Rimmel decided to take a leave of absence and train independently while considering his next move \u2013 something that\u2019s proven easier said than done.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s got their hands tied right now, so there\u2019s just not many opportunities for me,\u201d Rimmel told the Associated Press. \u201cI\u2019ve just been having to bet on myself and trust the process. It\u2019s just been lonely. I\u2019ve been at home training by myself and living with my family again. Thank God for my family and all, I appreciate them. It\u2019s still kind of lonely though, being out of the norm, not being at school and with my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pending approval, the so-called House settlement will allow schools to share revenue with athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). That could secure generational wealth for some but not others, and replacing scholarship caps with roster limitations is expected to leave walk-ons, partial scholarship earners, non-revenue sport athletes<\/a> and high school recruits at risk. There are deep concerns about the potential impact on sports that feed the U.S. Olympic<\/a> teams.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken told attorneys handling the settlement to come back to her with a plan soon to protect athletes<\/a> currently or recently on rosters at schools across the country, a request seen as a way to soften the blow.<\/p>\n

What that looks like is anyone\u2019s guess for now, but thousands of athletes like Rimmel have no idea where they might be this fall or are in jeopardy of no longer playing college sports at all. And many athletes balancing school and their sport are unaware of what\u2019s at stake and have more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

Belmont track and field athlete Sabrina Ootsburg said everything she knows about the settlement is from personal research.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy school doesn\u2019t do a lot of education around it (the settlement). Every now and then, we\u2019ll be told, \u2018Hey, if you want to sign up to potentially get some money from this House settlement that\u2019s happening, you can do that,\u2019\u201d Ootsburg said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like the education we\u2019re being given is optional to consume, even though it\u2019s limited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oostburg is used to taking matters into her own hands, securing over 50 NIL deals by herself. She has contacted lawyers and asked for updates on the settlement, but she\u2019s not quite reassured. The chaotic nature of college athletics so obvious to the public is even worse for the athletes themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a college athlete, it\u2019s so hard to stay up to date with what\u2019s happening every day because it\u2019s so constantly changing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"FILEFILE \u2013 The NCAA logo is displayed at center court at The Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, March 18, 2015. (AP Photo\/Keith Srakocic, File)<\/p>\n

Smaller, non-revenue-generating programs don\u2019t often have a point person to navigate NIL deals or educate athletes. At Belmont, Ootsburg said, NIL-related responsibilities are managed by an already busy compliance office.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo take time to learn about what\u2019s happening is just so time-consuming, especially if you\u2019re not in that one percent or one of the football players where they have people dedicated to helping them stay up to date,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For now, thousands of athletes are trying to wrap up their spring semesters and many of them have league tournaments or even NCAA championship competition ahead before what many expect will be the final summer before college sports sees some of the most dramatic changes in history. For athletes like Rimmel, those changes are already here.<\/p>\n

Some of the others cut from the Virginia Tech program have given up on their dreams of collegiate running altogether. Rimmel hasn\u2019t given up completely; he spoke with his former coach recently, who said the Hokies\u2019 athletics department is still trying to figure out what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still kind of hoping I might be able to find my way back there next fall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

AP college sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-sports<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: May 7, 2025 at 9:22 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By MAURA CAREY The $2.8 billion NCAA settlement awaiting final approval from a federal judge is touted as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[5,648,5755,1694,2341,2361,169,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-8481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-college-baseball","10":"tag-national-news","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-baseball","13":"tag-network","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114467777091565575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}