Published January 29th, 2025.
Radical Judicial Pressure is Forcing the NCAA to make Major Changes that We don’t know the Consequences for.
Sport organizations have traditionally been allowed autonomy to govern and make policy in the participants best interest. Recently, lawsuits and threats of lawsuits have created a volatile environment where the NCAA feels compelled to make changes without the time and research to know the consequences. Without the due diligence and prudence a butterfly effect may produce a great deal of collateral damage to the athletes and the institutions. The aim of this article is to examine some potential broken arrows and problems that have emerged as the NCAA is overhauling rules and policies that govern who can play sports, the number of athletes who can play on a team, and how and how much they can be compensated.
When we discuss national governing bodies and sport systems we identify that they are organizations and recognize them as a loosely coupled, semiautonomous autopoietic system. The NCAA operates within a sport delivery system that consists of other sport organizations and a variety of external influences from sponsorship to regulatory bodies outside the organization and from within. As the system is pushed and pulled from a plethora of stakeholders the “playing experience” is modified and altered to include new constraints and consequences both intended and unintended. “Even so, the system remains somewhat self-contained and growth orientated. The challenges of management of such a system require that the system be protected and that those who lead it be able to monitor and protect if from imploding during problems. (Orr & Jamieson, 2021, p.5)” Confused coaches, administrators, players and prospective players have all been quoted in an often more confused media story with their problems or issues with the new rules as they perceive them or try to forecast impacts of all these changes.
This summer The Center on Sport Policy and Conduct examined some of the issues and broken arrows that we forecasted based on the proposed idea of allowing Canadian Major Junior Hockey players to be eligible for American NCAA Division one programs. We published several concerns as well as common sense suggestions for a transition that would be less disruptive to current student athletes that included either grandfathering in players or bringing in the changes in stages. As students, their academic and professional goals should be paramount to the needs of the sport team that is helping provide for their education, so to be displaced from a college suddenly when the coaches and team can find better players seems like a problem to stakeholders who care about the mental health of our students who play sports. (See https://www.sportpolicycenter.com/news/2024/7/8/is-the-chl-to-ncaa-pipeline-realistic-if-so-when-and-how )
The NCAA has lost a great deal of autonomy as the court and legal system has stepped into the world of sports as advocates and are creating policy from their benches. Traditionally, sport administrators would question this tactic and ask that they be allowed to make the best decision and receive some type of insulation from legal and government entities that worked in a manner that was congruent with the ideals of the mission and only were interfered with when something was clearly illegal and wrong. As judges legislate from the bench and bring emotionally charged ideas and verdicts to the system, the NCAA has been rushing into compliance without the due diligence necessary and we are hearing of the problems now and they are getting louder.
Reducing the number of student athletes will reduce the number of potential number of student athletes who would have standing to sue for salary. As a legal principle the lessnumber of grieved parties that exist the less legal liability the organization has. The problem now is that if these players are asked to leave the program early so that these teams can get under a quota, each and every eliminated player is inherently damaged by losing opportunities that were promised to them (or implied). Student athletesespecially from non revenue sports have already shared their concerns with the proposed House v. NCAA agreement. In the proposal swimming programs would need to cut rosters to 22 athletes which was brough up in a James Sutherland article in which we quote;
Recruits are being told that previously guaranteed roster spots are no longer there. The law firm argues that these student-athletes “relied on a completely different set of rules” when they were being recruited, and are now getting hit with these changes unjustly.
“To comply with the roster limits, schools must cut players from existing teams, limit incoming recruits, and eliminate walk-ons. The result is a dramatic decrease in the total number of roster spots across all college sports, whether or not athletes earn a scholarship,” MoloLamken’s objection document reads.
“The roster limits already have inflicted harm. Anticipating them, schools have cut student-athletes from teams. Student-athletes have flooded the transfer portal, making finding a new team often challenging.
“Dedicated high school students who toiled to play in college have had promised roster spots rescinded. And because they had already committed to a school, they have been foreclosed from pursuing opportunities to play for another. Thousands of student-athletes who honored one set of rules are seeing their lives upended and dreams shattered because another set of rules is being arbitrarily forced on them.” (Sutherland, 2025-see https://swimswam.com/the-legal-argument-swimmers-divers-have-against-pending-roster-limits-in-ncaa/ )
Public signing days for football teams have been questioned as coaches try to fit players on rosters that were already competitive with the transfer portal, covid and injury redshirts, graduate players and all sorts of reasons that students were extending their student athlete experience. Lesser supported teams promote their player signings with concern that their recruits will be poached and even if they stay a season, they will be able to transfer to a higher bidder. College programs are becoming feeder programs and stepping stones that athletes are using to climb towards certain successes however the academic progress is seldom given the weight it deserves in these decisions.
In sports like Ice Hockey where young athletes play a version of low level minor leaguehockey called “Juniors”, players who have dedicated multiple years of college hockey preparation may now see themselves with no opportunity as players from the CHL will take the spots that may have been in their range. Players who are on teams now can be forced out when younger players come in and compete for the few remaining spots for new and returning players. If your minutes were limited but acceptable currently, knowing that there will be less opportunities to play and more talent competing for those spots is forcing students to already hit the transfer portal. As division one players transfer down, the current division two rosters will be shaken up as coaches decide between adding new talent or staying loyal to the student athletes on their teams. Division two athletes will then transfer down to create a similar issue at the division three level and then that can push on JUCO, NAIA and Non NCAA teams such as ACHA hockey.
The issues that former swimmer Grant House and the team of lawyers are charging are based on providing backpay for former athletes from 2016 to 2021, revenue sharing with athletes as well as the overhauled and reduced roster sizes. Our objections to the roster limits is consistent with the frustrations coming from athletes. “Such a change will result in thousands of lost roster spots for mostly walk on athletes and those on partial scholarship – a consequence that has sparked outrage from hundreds of parents of athletes or prospective athletes whose spots have been or soon be eliminated” (Dellenger, 2024). Lawyers and Judges are meeting with the NCAA to find an agreement however the initial proposed dollars would have bankrupted the NCAA and its member institutions. Paying former athletes like Grant House and Sedona Prince has become such a legal priority that it has created consequences that are yet to be knownand many people wonder why it all must change. Grant House has received death threats as people accuse him of ruining college sports. Colleges are making cuts preparing for budgets that have the room to pay salaries to athletes and coaches are cutting players to make room as the NCAA continues to figure out how it is building its’ plane.
As college sports are being driven towards elite and away from opportunities there will be many consequences. Flying a plane while you build it does not leave any room for error. The rapid way in which others are pushing the NCAA and threatening them in many ways are not helping the ability of the NCAA to fly and be the pilot especially when lives are at stake for many of our most underprivileged citizens who see sport as a social mobilizer and opportunity for a better life.
References
Dellenger, R. (Dec, 2024) Who is House in House v. NCAA Settlement? Meet the Man behind the lawsuit that will change college sports forever. Yahoo Sports. Path; https://sports.yahoo.com/who-is-house-in-house-v-ncaa-settlement-meet-the-man-behind-the-lawsuit-that-will-change-college-sports-forever-165955719.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAM8Al-UDLIKradS7xN39uoLj4lKuOwzBuBgv9mNrbmcN_QKCHWZi52Qcdcdg4UPQ_XEHQSLoMkgjEA_r1leOX7dyJaAbomWaWXKi5lLxzURJeI40v3_Mli5Eo4iGFT3IpOFcSenMzCXtVGusfenqtTqhe0vn48yGaCH9EDwqKDn-#:~:text=House%2C%20a%2026%2Dyear%2D,in%20the%20process%20of%20settling.
Orr, T. & Ness, J. (2024). Is the CHL to NCAA Pipeline Realistic? If so, when and how? Center on Sport Policy and Conduct. Path; https://www.sportpolicycenter.com/news/2024/7/8/is-the-chl-to-ncaa-pipeline-realistic-if-so-when-and-how
Orr, T. & Jamieson, L. (2020). Sport and Violence; A Critical Examination of Sport. Sagamore Venture Publishing. Path; https://www.amazon.com/Sport-Violence-THOMAS-ORR/dp/1571679790