NCAA players can now be paid. It's a move that should mark the end of USA Hockey exploiting NCAA athletes without compensating them for international competition as Ian Kennedy writes.

When USA won gold at the 2017 World Championships and 2018 Olympics, it was the first time players on their roster were paid liveable wages.

In 2017 USA Hockey's women's national team threatened to boycott the World Championship tournament unless players received a liveable wage for representing USA. In the end, "the "living wage" that was established by the settlement was about $71,000 per player." Players were also eligible to earn an additional $37,500 bonus each for winning a gold medal. That meant that on multiple occasions including the 2017, 2019, and 2023 World Championships, and 2018 Olympics, that members of USA's national team made over $100,000 USD per season. That deal has since been renegotiated to a higher rate.

In 2022, the USA's silver medal performance at the Beijing Olympics earned players $105,500.

But in USA Hockey, only a fraction of these players actually make the money assigned in this contract. Specifically, NCAA players do not receive a wage from USA Hockey. 

The Olympics were once a competition of "amateurs." That's gone now, leaving NCAA athletes as the singular group to be exploited in the name of a classist division of amateurism built on aristocracy. Sport at this level, was originally for aristocrats, those who could dedicate their lives to leisure and sport, without concern for working to earn their money.

It's a point that is ending in the NCAA where the exploitation of athletes, whether it's the control of name, image, and likeness, or more recently the multi-million dollar profits turned by NCAA programs and schools without paying those generating that revenue.

With NCAA players now eligible to be paid for playing college sport, USA Hockey needs to follow suit and pay their college athletes. There has long been belief that a reason USA Hockey relies so heavily on college athletes for their women's national team is to keep costs low.

This season, 13 of USA's 23 player roster came from the NCAA. 

That means only 10 players on USA's roster made the six figure salaries that were negotiated for national team players. Players like World Championship MVP Laila Edwards, reigning USA Hockey Player of the Year Caroline Harvey. In 2022, Taylor Heise was named the World Championships MVP while playing in the NCAA, and then you have a USA stalwart like Cayla Barnes who has played in two Olympic Games and five World Championships for USA, winning multiple gold medals and being named a World Championship All-Star in 2019, all while being an NCAA athlete, and not being equally compensated by USA Hockey.

USA Hockey was contacted for comment, but stated they have nothing on the topic at this time. 

Of USA's 10 professional players, all except for Hayley Scamurra were signed to guaranteed three-year contracts in the PWHL. That means that each are making at least $80,000 USD from their contracts in the PWHL, with many making well over $100,000 and some in the $150,000 range, on top of their USA Hockey wages.

Much like the NCAA, USA Hockey has benefitted from the unpaid performance of stars since 2017 like Taylor Heise, Aerin Frankel, and Caroline Harvey, and this season Laila Edwards, without needing to fairly compensate them. The risk before was jeopardizing NCAA eligibility in another flawed system. Now however, with NCAA athletes eligible for pay, the excuse is gone.

It's time for athletes doing equal work, to receive equal pay. USA's women's national team fought for that right compared to their men's hockey counterparts in 2017, and now with precedent set in the NCAA, another legal battle could be on the forefront to ensure all athletes competing for USA Hockey's senior national program at the Rivalry Series, World Championships, and Olympics are also equitably paid compared to their PWHL counterparts while representing their nation.