Following a $2.8 billion settlement of an anti-trust lawsuit, college athletes in the NCAA, including women's hockey players, will now be eligible to be paid by their schools for their athletic participation.
Following a $2.8 billion settlement of an anti-trust lawsuit, college athletes in the NCAA, including women's hockey players, will now be eligible to be paid by their schools for their athletic participation.
It's a new era in NCAA sports following a $2.8 billion settlement in an anti-trust lawsuit by current and former NCAA athletes against the NCAA and their schools.
The result is that thousands of past and present athletes will receive compensation for their on-field, court, floor, track, and ice efforts. As well, the decision also states that schools are now able to set aside up to $21 million per season to be paid directly to athletes competing for their schools.
While football and basketball were are the center of this debate, it extends to all sports, including men's and women's hockey.
The unpaid and exploited labor of college athletes and plantation dynamics have become popular research fields among scholars over the last decade. It's become widely understood by athletes that many NCAA institutions make tens of millions each year off the athletic performance of students. College coaches are often paid millions to win, while the athletes competing make nothing.
In 2021, college athletes won the right to earn money from their own name, image, and likeness (NIL), which until then, only the schools they competed for could profit from media appearances, endorsements, and advertisements featuring athletes. According to Business Insider, NIL deals have since paid athletes millions, including women's athletes like Angel Reese (NIL Valuation of $1.8 million), Caitlin Clark (NIL Valuation of $3.1 million), and the highest paid woman in NIL history, gymnast Livvy Dunne (NIL valuation of $3.6 million).
Athletes will now be eligible to be directly paid by schools for their athletic participation.
In women's hockey, attendance has been climbing similar to the explosion seen in other women's sports. This included 10,633 fans for the women's final of the 2024 Beanpot Tournament at TD Garden in Boston. The University of Wisconsin, a perennial powerhouse in women's hockey averaged 99.8% capacity at LaBahn Arena drawing an average of 2,269 fans per game across 21 home dates.
With the PWHL providing a future for women's hockey players in the NCAA, highly touted athletes may now begin choosing programs based on the level of compensation provided.
Future implications could be wide spanning including the inequitable disparity related to NCAA eligibility for drafted players. Currently, men's hockey players drafted to the NHL are able to retain their NCAA eligibility, while any woman who declares for the PWHL Draft immediately loses her NCAA eligibility.