Other States Are Preparing For The House Nil Settlement. But Can Florida Schools Compete?

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida lawmakers have been hesitant to change laws about compensating student athletes, as college sports enter a turbulent and expensive new era thanks to a landmark NCAA court settlement expected in April.

But neighboring states, filled with Florida schools’ rivals on the field and court, are off and running.

The results of House v. NCAA, the culmination of three antitrust lawsuits targeting restrictions on benefits that players can receive for their work and publicity rights, could allow schools to directly pay student athletes for the first time. And the Sunshine State’s neighbors are aggressively moving to get ahead of the decision’s mandate.

Lawmakers in Arkansas this week passed a bill allowing schools to hold raffles to generate more cash for sports programs. Georgia and Alabama are pursuing legislation that would exempt student athletes from paying income tax to sweeten the pot for players considering colleges in their states.

But Florida’s Legislature — one of the first to enact a name, image and likeness policy — appears unlikely to change its law this year or kick in new funding. Instead, university system leaders are expected to loosen spending regulations to give schools flexibility to pump different revenue streams into athletic programs.

“If we don’t do something, we’re not going to maintain our competitiveness,” said Jennifer Condon, the University of South Florida’s vice president of business and finance and chief financial officer.

Facing new costs for compliance with the NCAA lawsuit and even more spending to potentially match competitors, Florida universities worry that major sports programs in other states could now woo their students. Without a firm plan for complying with the coming settlement, the universities could see a drop in revenue, weak rosters for revenue-generating sports and one less incentive for students to enroll.

The court decision, with $2.8 billion in the balance, is expected to come in April, toward the end of Florida’s lawmaking session.

The proposed House v. NCAA settlement would alter the collegiate landscape by allowing schools to make direct payments to student athletes possibly as soon as this fall.

For 2025, that means colleges may be able to share up to $20.5 million in athletics revenue with players, based on a cap currently in the deal.

In another major shift, the NCAA is preparing to get rid of scholarship limits and put ceilings on rosters. Teams will be smaller as a result, but schools can offer scholarships to more players depending on their budgets.

Most schools in the four “power” conferences — the Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 10 and Big 12 — are expected to participate in revenue sharing with athletes, an optional piece of the settlement.

For Florida, up to 10 of 12 state universities could ultimately opt in to the revenue share, according to State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues.

It’s likely larger schools — such as the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Central Florida, USF, Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University — will choose to share revenue with student athletes. For others, like Florida Gulf Coast University, the University of North Florida, Florida A&M University and the University of West Florida, it may be a more difficult decision. Two schools, New College of Florida and Florida Polytechnic University, don’t have eligible sports programs.

University officials told Florida lawmakers this week that declining the revenue share would “completely erode your competitiveness” in college athletics.

Yet even though schools can choose to share less money, those are steep costs to absorb, especially for colleges at different competition levels, such as FAMU, which plays in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, part of the Football Championship Subdivision — a step below that of larger schools like UF and FSU.

“When you say there’s a $20.5 million cap, well, that’s more than our annual budget,” said Angela Suggs, FAMU’s vice president and director of athletics.

The effects of the proposed NCAA agreement could cost Florida’s university system $170 million combined each year, according to Rodrigues.

That estimate includes up to $20.5 million in revenue sharing for some universities, on top of a different new cost: contributing to $2.8 billion in back pay for former student athletes. Another piece of the class-action settlement encompassing past NIL payments missed out on by former students, these costs are expected to vary among colleges.

Over the next decade, that would mean $7.5 million for USF, nearly $4 million at FIU and $2.7 million at FAMU, according to school officials.

Amid the rising price of college athletics, Florida lawmakers have no interest in chipping in state funding for sports programs — something that has never been done in the Sunshine State. State House members, who held a three-day workgroup this week exploring NIL issues, proclaimed that “the second you open that door, all hell is going to break loose.”

“Teachers are watching, going, ‘Man, I have a hard time just living in Florida with the amount of money I make,’” said state Rep. Omar Blanco (R-Miami). “And yet we’re talking about millions of dollars here that we might potentially have to get involved with to help save the athletic programs in our state colleges.”

Florida schools, like those throughout the country, are searching for possible revenue sources to bring more money to college athletics. Fundraising is a key piece, as universities consider putting ads on jersey patches, adding new fees on ticket sales and selling naming rights for their stadiums.

But funding gaps are already emerging.

FIU could add 195 new scholarships under the proposed House settlement. But it would cost the school $5.5 million — money that’s not in the budget, according to Athletics Director Scott Carr.

As an example of what’s to come, the scholarship limit in baseball is expected to jump from 11.7 students to 34 under the agreement. At FIU, there will still be only 11.7 scholarships available next year, Carr said.

“We’ve got Pitbull Stadium now down there right in Miami,” Carr said, referring to the school’s stadium sponsored by the well-known musician. “Our goal is to go all in on hosting as many concerts down there as we can and generating a new revenue source that can go toward scholarships and toward NIL.”

States outside of Florida are considering a slew of different laws attempting to get in front of the House settlement.

West Virginia lawmakers, for example, have introduced a proposal to handcuff the NCAA, conferences and schools when it comes to investigating student athletes and their NIL deals. Legislators in other states are suggesting an income tax break for student athletes, which is particularly notable because Florida has no income tax and directly competes against schools from those states on the field and in recruiting.

In Arkansas, the Legislature is advancing a bill to allow raffles at sporting events to raise money for athletics and NIL, against concerns from some lawmakers that it might run afoul of the state constitution.

These measures go above and beyond Florida’s NIL policy, which was created in 2020 as one of the first state laws that forced the NCAA into action.

“Current Florida NIL law is three paragraphs long and does two things,” said Javier Peral II, assistant general counsel with the University of Miami. “It’s a very sparse NIL law when compared to all the other states.”

“Right now, it’s virtually a blank [slate],” Peral added.

Florida lawmakers, though, don’t appear ready to take a significant swing at NIL with the House v. NCAA settlement deal still in the works.

There is a bill in the Legislature that would limit the cut an agent can take from student athletes to 5 percent. But it’s unclear if that legislation will gain momentum.

Otherwise, the state House’s NIL workgroup punted on making any recommendations for now, leaving it up to the university system's board of governors to look at potential rule changes.

“This is here; it’s coming — we’re going to be dealing with it. In one way or another, this Legislature probably is going to deal with it,” said state Rep. Alex Rizo (R-Hialeah), who led the Florida House’s NIL workgroup. “We may take a laissez-faire approach. However, we may not be able to.”

To free up more cash for sports, the board of governors is considering a rule to give schools more flexibility for spending auxiliary money generated by operations like bookstores, food services and even campus golf courses. University officials suggested money could come from sources like payments they get for using procurement card programs — cash back from credit cards — or net investment revenue above guaranteed interest returns.

“If we don’t figure this out to match other states, even as a Georgia fan, Florida schools are going to find either they can be left behind, or they can be competitive,” said state Rep. Danny Nix (R-Port Charlotte), who was born in Athens, Georgia — home of the University of Florida’s archrival, the Georgia Bulldogs.

Gary Fineout contributed to this report.