Pete Thamel predicts if House Settlement, new NIL system will even the playing field in college sports

ESPN’s Pete Thamel broke down the latest with the NCAA House Settlement following an agreement this week. Most would want to know with a new allotment of money per school, if it would finally level the playing field around college athletics.

This is especially questioned in football where it’s the big boys and everyone else. Not necessarily a sport for underdogs, mostly, at the collegiate level.

Now that the House Settlement has passed, to the tune of nearly $3 billion, Thamel explained how this is going to work exactly. But it won’t stop the big boys from being the big boys.

“That’s a fascinating question, and there are so many variables between what’s being structured and what’s going to actually happen that I’m hesitant to predict an ideal situation,” Thamel said on SportsCenter. “I think the reality for a lot of this is the schools, the big box brands, the ones whose logos you recognize, have always had a competitive advantage for those brands, and how the NIL system is going to be set up, meaning schools can give $20.5 million for their athletes. 

“So in theory, that is going to be evenly spread. But where the competitive advantages go, they used to be about grey areas are now going to be how much outside NIL is going to be available to those athletes.”

With this House Settlement, schools can now directly pay athletes. Prior to this, the NCAA never did nor allowed payments directly to athletes over the last century-plus. As you can see, things have drastically changed in the era of NIL and the transfer portal.

Beginning July 1, schools will be able to share $20.5 million with athletes, with football expected to receive 75%, followed by men’s basketball (15%), women’s basketball (5%) and the remainder of sports (5%),’ as On3’s Pete Nakos pointed out. The amount shared in revenue will increase annually due to this House Settlement.

“You’re not supposed to promise it up front, but look, Texas is going to have more outside NIL available than Louisiana-Monroe as it goes,” Thamel said. “So how those deals are accepted through this NIL clearing house, look, they named a CEO of the College Sports Commission last night, like by midnight, there were a flurry of tweets, and it was like, ‘Hi, I’m your new commission, and this is your new commissioner, and we’re going to run college sports now.’ 

“The old NCAA enforcement model as we knew it is primarily dead. NCAA enforcement still exists for academic cases and fairness of the game cases, as the (Connor) Stalions case in Indianapolis this weekend is going on, but there is a whole new sheriff in town. His name is Brian Seeley, and he comes over for Major League Baseball, and he was hired formally within three hours of the settlement coming. His job and the role of his organization is ultimately going to determine your question of whether this evens the playing field or those advantages still exist.”