Ivy League Tightens Rules by Policing Athlete Deals over $2,000

(Bloomberg) — Ivy League athletic departments are ramping up the paper work to prove they played no part in compensating their athletes, drawing a sharp distinction from powerhouse college programs paying millions to players.

Athletic departments are signing attestations of independence for any name, image and likeness deals for players making $2,000 or more, according to Mike Harrity, who directs athletics and recreation at Dartmouth College and described the process for the eight schools.

At the start of the year, the eight Ivies that include Harvard and Yale opted out of a recent federal settlement between college athletes and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and said they won’t be making direct payments to athletes.

While Ivy League colleges have opted out of the settlement, they are still bound by new rules meant to prevent NIL agreements from being used as pay to play. All Division I athletes must report deals of $600 to the new clearinghouse run by Deloitte. The Ivy League presidents decided to take an additional step to show they are not involved in any outside deals with players.

“We attest as athletic directors that we are not in any way, directly or indirectly, asking a donor or alum to give money to somebody as a recruit inducement, or if they want to go into the transfer portal as a retention inducement,” said Harrity on Bloomberg Radio at Bloomberg Power Players New York.

The new College Sports Commission, which monitors athletes and schools and oversees the NIL clearinghouse, in early September, released its first NIL deal flow report. The CSC said it had cleared about 6,000 deals since the clearinghouse opened in June, for a combined total of $35.4 million. This does not include the up to $20.5 million that each school can pay directly to its athletes in the current academic year under the rules of the settlement.

The University of California, Los Angeles has already paid out $4.8 million to players, its athletic director previously told Bloomberg.

The Ivy League, whose members include many of the richest private universities in the US, has a different financial model from its Division I peers. The schools don’t give athletic scholarships and only distribute financial aid based on a family’s need and income.  

Harrity said Dartmouth sees athletes as students first. The school in Hanover, New Hampshire, held that line last year when the men’s basketball team voted 13-2 to unionize. The team later pulled back the effort. But the school said it would go up to the Supreme Court to say that students aren’t employees. 

“Dartmouth has a long history of supporting unions, including student workers,” Harrity said. “We view the athletics endeavor first and foremost at its core is educational in nature.”

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–With assistance from Ira Boudway.

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