GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — This week in the Final Four, they'll be playing for a trophy and the right to cut the net. An Olympic gold medal is also at stake.
The economic fate of college basketball players and their football brethren will have a huge impact on America's ability to field a successful Olympic team beyond this summer's Paris Games, as the hallmarks of college sports become increasingly urgent. will be given.
Every issue surrounding college sports right now — the NIL, potential player salaries, conference adjustments, television contracts, expanded football playoffs, and possibly the basketball tournament — is a major concern for crew, gymnastics, wrestling, and dozens of others. will impact how Olympic sports teams operate at universities. It will keep you gaming for years to come.
“Our friends at the USOPC are understandably concerned,” said Scott Stricklin, a Florida athletic director who serves on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which studies the relationship between universities and the Olympics.
Unlike virtually all countries, the U.S. government does not fund Olympic teams. The system has worked for decades because the United States has one of the most extensively developed university systems in the world, where most of the nation's Olympic athletes and hundreds of athletes representing other countries train.
But their teams depend on the overall health of the football and men's basketball programs, whose revenue helps pay for virtually every Olympic sport played on campuses across the country. Recent trends indicate that about 75% of the U.S. Olympic team heading to the Paris Olympics later this year will be made up of college athletes. His 82% of US Olympic medalists at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics were competing in his NCAA.
In the new landscape of college sports – where players receive compensation through NIL compensation arrangements, but may also begin to share revenue with the schools themselves – the key issue is how to cover all of these payments. , whether there is enough money to fund more sports. More than 5,900 “small sport” programs are spread across 360 NCAA Division I schools, the pipeline to the Olympics.
By some estimates, NCAA schools spend more than $5 billion annually on so-called non-revenue sports, or Olympic sports.
Whether it's the recent decision in a lawsuit involving Dartmouth players who want to unionize or NCAA President Charlie Baker's proposal to pay college athletes $30,000 a year, at some point in the next decade the university will It seems inevitable that they will have difficulty paying their compensation.
If that happens, some schools may choose to cut their Olympic sports programs to fund at least part of the tab, USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said. He said there is.
“This is where I get really uncomfortable and say, 'Let's think about this really carefully,'” Hirshland said. “Offering a wide range of sports programs on campus is an important part of America’s sports culture.”
New money could be found through increased revenue from the recently negotiated College Football Playoff television deal with ESPN worth $7.8 billion over six years. The NCAA's $8.8 billion contract with March Madness, which runs through 2032, could be restarted if the NCAA expands the tournament from 68 teams.
But even school leaders who could benefit most from these revenue increases don't believe it's enough to cover player payments across all athletic programs.
“Those are resources and revenues that don't exist,” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said, estimating that player salaries come with eight-figure price tags.
“So it could have an impact on the Olympic sports, the number of sports that can be offered, the level. I've heard colleagues say, 'Well, we're just going to scale back the competitions that we have on the schedule.' 'Please offer,' he said.
“That's not a good idea,” said John Smith, a two-time Olympian wrestling champion who coaches at Oklahoma State University. He addressed the reality that the majority of kids who participate in sports don't want to get rich.
“What impact will it have on our society?” Smith said. “What does that mean for high school, Little League, youth sports? How does it affect all of those things? Because they're going to be affected.”
The sheer amount of money embedded in NIL transactions will also be part of this conversation. These do not come directly from the school's coffers, but are run by “organizations” with close ties to the school, and are often funded by donors, with donations not coming from the school. It may be directed to the group.
“Then they say, ‘How do you want the money to be spent?’ Do you want it to go to the athletic department to help pay the coaches, or do you want it to go to the student-athletes? '' said Mike Ross, former Gonzaga University athletic director. “But the total amount that people donate probably won't change much.”
Most recently, Stanford University made the unpopular choice to close 11 of its 36 varsity programs as the pandemic strained athletic department budgets. As with any large-scale fundraiser, a near-rebellion ensued, and Stanford University withdrew. One of his statistics that stood out at the time was that if the Stanford athlete had represented his country at his 2016 Olympics, he would have finished 11th in the medal standings.
Recently, some of the same conversations that led Stanford University to cut its programs are playing out across American universities.
“It's tough in these times when resources are limited,” said Bernard Muir, Stanford athletic director. I want to really grow it.” We are proud of the Olympic Movement and want to continue to do so. ”
___
AP Sports Writers Janie McCauley and Cliff Brandt contributed to this report.
___
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
