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Now It's Legal with Jim Cavale - Bonus Episode
110 Plays8 months ago
Welcome to "Now It's Legal" with Jim Cavale. In this episode, Jim delves into the current state and future of college athletics, highlighting the need for change in revenue sharing and athlete involvement. With landmark legal battles like House vs. NCAA underway, Jim emphasizes the crucial role athletes play in shaping the new norms. He urges athletes and parents to get informed and demand a seat at the table, while encouraging college leaders to proactively engage with athletes. Fans are called to support athletes as they navigate this transformative period.
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About Now It's Legal
In July 2021, NIL forever changed the trajectory of college athletics. It’s been a long time coming as the NCAA has long needed changes like NIL, the transfer portal, revenue sharing and other benefits for college athletes. We introduce to you the Now It’s Legal podcast. Join us as we discuss the industry that holds the hearts of millions of fans who want to understand where its trajectory is heading. We are talking to those who are invested in and affected by NIL including: Former and current college athletes, presidents and head coaches, broadcasters and media personalities, investors and more. This is just the beginning of NIL and what it means for the future of college athletics.
Host Jim Cavale is a former college athlete and entrepreneur who has become an advocate for young athletes across the country. In 2017, he created the INFLCR app that allowed athletes to build their brand on social media, and in 2021, evolved into the NIL management technology for more than 100,000 athletes across 200 college athletic programs. INFLCR has since been acquired by sports tech titan, Teamworks.
In 2023, Jim founded Athletes.org which which is the players association for college athletes to negotiate the best terms for their college athletics experience. AO provides its member athletes with a free membership, empowering them with a voice, on demand support, and group licensing income in the same ways that professional league associations do for their member athletes.
Tune in to a new episode every Monday and join in on the conversation on Instagram with @nowitslegalpod and @jimcavale.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Future of College Athletics
00:00:00
Speaker
What's up, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Now It's Legal. I am your host, Jim Cavall, and today you're stuck with me. No guest.
Understanding Changes and Misconceptions
00:00:10
Speaker
We're going to have a talk about where college athletics is at and where it's going, because a lot is going on.
00:00:17
Speaker
I'm gonna start doing this every few episodes because things are moving so fast. And if you're an athlete, a parent, you need to understand this. And I'm gonna try to explain it in the simplest possible form. If you're a college athletics leader, you need to understand this and the choice that you have, because that choice may determine whether we're back here again in the near future with another case that's being settled.
00:00:42
Speaker
If you are a fan, you need to understand this because you might feel like the athletes are the problem here. I've heard
Revenue Growth vs. Athlete Benefits
00:00:50
Speaker
people say that and they're now. So let's get into, first off, what's happening at eye level. Caps are being put on athletes in regard to their experience and what they get to be a college athlete.
00:01:05
Speaker
for a long time, scholarships and some of the other benefits you get as a college athlete have been looked at as enough. And they're very valuable. A scholarship is extremely valuable. What you can do with a degree is extremely valuable, but also the benefits that you get and the experience you get playing, especially at a power conference institution is tough to match.
00:01:27
Speaker
But the pie has continuously gotten bigger. I'm talking about billions and billions of dollars bigger over the past couple of decades. And as the pie has gotten bigger, the slices that go to the athletic director and their staff, the coaches and their staff has gotten bigger as well.
00:01:45
Speaker
The slice that goes into facilities and equipment and different things that can attract athletes to come to a school has also gotten bigger. The slice that goes to the athletes has really stayed the same and thus is smaller in that bigger pie. And that slice is, of course, what I just mentioned, scholarship and benefits.
00:02:03
Speaker
And so
Legal Cases and Revenue Sharing
00:02:04
Speaker
there are a lot of cases that have to do with the caps of the size of that slice of the pie that athletes are getting. Cases like House versus the NCAA, Carter versus the NCAA, Johnson versus the NCAA. I can keep going. There's also a lot of National Labor Relations Board cases.
00:02:23
Speaker
All these cases have to do with different ways athletes are being capped. The case that has the biggest number dollar amount tied to it is the House versus NCAA case. It's a $4.2 billion in damages amount. And it's all about revenue sharing. As the revenue is grown and boomed in college athletics up to about a $20 billion a year industry, the athletes don't get to share it.
00:02:52
Speaker
And this case will create a settlement probably this year, probably in the coming weeks. And that settlement will probably be for a little less than 4.2 billion. Let's call it 2.5 to 3 billion. And that money will go to a class of athletes from 2016 through the present who played sports and helped produce revenue and didn't get paid for it. There'll also be what's called an injunctive class. The injunctive class
Athlete Involvement in Negotiations
00:03:18
Speaker
is current athletes and athletes in the future.
00:03:22
Speaker
and terms will be set for schools to be able to start sharing revenue with these athletes. But the reality is when the settlements announced, it's the beginning of a clock. The clock starts in really what is the game that will set the stage for the future of college athletics.
00:03:41
Speaker
about a nine month clock, let's call it. Those nine months from when this settlement gets initiated to let's call it next May will be the opportunity for college athletics leaders at the school and conference level to involve their athletes in agreeing to the terms of the future of college athletics.
00:04:03
Speaker
whether it's revenue sharing or whether it's other things that athletes should have the opportunity to speak into, such as transfer rules, practice time per week, length of the season, how many games they play, you name it. Post-grad medical coverage, mental health resources.
00:04:19
Speaker
All of those things have been decided by the schools and their leaders for a long time without the athletes. But now there is an opportunity once the settlements initiated for the schools to involve the athletes in that conversation and the athletes to be able to advocate and negotiate for themselves to get the very best terms from how much money is shared with them down through all the other things I just mentioned.
00:04:45
Speaker
If the leaders in college athletics don't involve the athletes in the setting of those terms, it's a can kick down the road.
00:04:53
Speaker
we will have more lawsuits and we'll be right back here. However,
Athletes Deserve a Seat at the Table
00:04:58
Speaker
if they do involve the athletes, there's a chance to have a deal that's agreed to by the athletes that can be protected so we don't live in the courts, but we can actually have new rules with revenue sharing and other standards set that can be governed by the NCAA or the conferences that these schools play in.
00:05:17
Speaker
This is really important and it's applicable to each audience that I mentioned at the beginning of this episode. If you're an athlete or parent and you're a current athlete or a soon-to-be college athlete, you need to educate yourself on this.
00:05:35
Speaker
Before you agree to any terms, you need to make sure that you and your teammates have a vote and a seat at the table to decide what those terms are. The only way to do that
Choices for College Athletics Leaders
00:05:47
Speaker
is to have an organization that you're a part of that can educate you, that can have you in a group that helps you get to the table to negotiate and set the terms from your perspective. And that's what athletes.org will allow you to do.
00:06:03
Speaker
If you go to athletes.org, you'll see it. That's what we've built. That's what more than 3,000 athletes have signed up for today. If you're a college athletics leader, you have a choice to make. You can do nothing. Let this play out. Let the others figure it out. That's what college athletics leaders have done for a long time, which is how we got here. Or you can get in front of this.
00:06:31
Speaker
You can allow your athletes to be educated on this. You can empower them to be educated on this. And you can allow for your athletes to sit at the table and have a perspective that they share and negotiate with you on for each of these categories from revenue sharing down through the others. And you can involve them in the terms you set at your institution or through your conference.
00:06:55
Speaker
That's the choice. And there's a lot of leaders I talk to regularly who are starting to embrace that route, which is very encouraging to the work we're doing at athletes.org. But there's
A Sustainable Future for College Athletics
00:07:06
Speaker
also a lot of leaders who don't think that that's necessary. Maybe they think that Congress is going to swoop in and save the day by protecting everything that's going to be set by these terms. Maybe they think the settlement and the protection clauses in the settlement are enough, but it's not likely.
00:07:23
Speaker
The only sustainable future for college athletics is a future where the new deal is done between the athletes and the schools and conferences they play for. And is solidified through an organization that not only empowers the current athletes to go do that deal, but can be the organization to allow all of the new athletes as they become freshmen to come into to continue to speak into that deal every time it's up.
00:07:49
Speaker
That's how pro sports work. That's how American labor works. And that eventually is how college athletics is going to work. And for fans understand that the athletes didn't create this. The people in leadership have not been proactive and instead have let these things play out in a way that has got us to today. And hopefully they won't do that in a way that prevents us from a sustainable future tomorrow.
00:08:19
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed this. If you're a parent or athlete, share it with other parents and athletes. Of course, go to athletes.org and educate yourself. Join our organization. You can even be a team rep for your team, which allows you to have a vote and really be empowered with the terms that are going to be set with the new deal of college athletics. If you're a college athletics leader,
00:08:40
Speaker
Continue to connect with me if you're already doing so. If you haven't, connect with me because I want to talk about this. I want to help your athletes get to the table. And if you are a fan, continue to talk about this on social and support the athletes in any way that you can.
00:08:58
Speaker
I'm Jim Cavall, and this is a special edition of Now It's Legal. I hope you're subscribed. Make sure you do so on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Podcasts or YouTube. And of course, follow us on Instagram at Now It's Legal Pod, where you can get clips of new episodes. We've got a lot of exciting guests coming from head coaches at the college level to former college athletes, current college athletes. Exciting lineup for the rest of the summer. Until next time, thanks for tuning in.