Beege Welborn

This is miserable.

Interesting ripple effects besides the obvious here, too. Ironically, the swimmer who won the lawsuit will benefit the least, if not have his sport impacted severely by his 'victory.'

Grant House Prevails in Landmark Settlement, But Olympic Sports Will Be Severely Affected

...The unintended side effect of the House v. NCAA lawsuit might be setting fire to House’s chosen sport, and other Olympic sports.

Schools that opted into the House settlement will begin distributing up to $20.5 million to current athletes on July 1. The generally acknowledged breakdown of payments is along these parameters: 75% to football players, 15% to men’s basketball players, 5% to women’s basketball players and 5% to all other sports combined. Some Olympic sports in major athletic departments will receive none of the House revenue share at all. The billions of dollars from the settlement will not trickle down to the vast majority of college athletes.

At Southeastern Conference spring meetings last month, some schools said they will distribute revenue to six sports. Others have said it will be only three—football and the two basketball programs. Meanwhile, schools with lesser resources are not only not distributing revenue to Olympic sports, many are looking to deemphasize or even eliminate them.

Concerns about the future of college swimming hovered over the U.S. championships here. With the economics of college athletics tilting more toward a big-business mentality, everyone in this and every Olympic sport is worried about what the post-House landscape will be.

“The elephant in the room is, what are the implications for Olympic sports?” says Louisville Cardinals swimming and diving coach Arthur Albiero, who is the president of the College Swim Coaches Association. “My concern is that the value of Olympic sports, that scale has shifted a little bit. Producing Olympians, All-Americans, great GPAs, great citizens—where does that fit into the metrics now? It’s a dire moment.”