Sullivan and UD had prepared for this moment, for months, if not years. They had contingency plans in place — especially in regards to the rules about roster limits, one of the issues that delayed the settlement — in case there were any last-minute surprises.
The final approval allowed UD to move forward with plans to share revenue with Dayton Flyers athletes and pay them directly starting July 1. Sullivan has said the annual total will number in the millions.
This comes four years after the start of the name, image and likeness era, which allowed athletes, for the first time, to earn more than scholarships because of their talents.
“The settlement represents a step in the right direction, an important move toward restoring accountability and structure to a broken system that has lost the trust of many,” Sullivan said in a statement on June 9. “While this approval marks significant progress, we recognize it is not the finish line. We remain hopeful that accountability does not end with the settlement’s approval, but begins with defendant conferences fulfilling its terms and transforming words into meaningful and lasting change. We’re ready to meet the moment and aggressively move forward with our fans and community by our side.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Sullivan has talked to the Dayton Daily News often about the changes coming to NCAA athletics, most recently in January when he said, “We are going to be bold,” in the new era. He did so again on Monday. Here’s what he had to say.
Q: Did the delay affect your planning?
A: I think the roster limit situation was a little challenging. We were just trying to give some of the young people clarity. I wouldn’t classify it as too significant. But some teams report in July, so we were just trying to make sure that they knew where they stood.
Q: What will the roster limits be for your various sports?
A: A couple sports get hit a little harder than others. Baseball is probably down six. Football is probably ultimately going to end up down 15. We get the same roster limits as the Power 4 conferences (the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12).
Q: What have the last six months been like for you, in terms of planning for this?
A: We’ve definitely spent a lot of time anticipating what the Power 4 was going to negotiate and what the judge would do. She sent them back to the drawing table a couple times. One of the challenges is that we’re not a party to it, but we’re essentially bound by it. We’re not at the negotiating table. The College Sports Commission is owned by the power conferences. We were always getting the information after those conferences, so we had to be a little bit reactive. But I’d say, for the most part, generally speaking, what we had been planning for is approximately what’s coming,
Q: How does this work financially? You’ll soon be paying basketball players and other athletes, You’ve got to support all the other sports. Are you in a good spot there?
A: It’s a tough question to answer. It’s really a delicate balance between optimism and being in a good spot and the planning that we’ve done. I feel good about that. At the same time, we have to have essentially a paranoid awareness of the competitive landscape.
The settlement was structured primarily around the assumption of Power 4 level revenues and economics, which essentially presumes around $100 million of commercial revenue. We’re well less than that.
Yes, we feel prepared. We feel ready. We’ve done a lot of work. We have a tremendous fan base. We see a path to navigate this. But I also know that we have to have a keen sense of what’s going on around us. I feel prepared, but I also have a sense of paranoia to make sure that we’re running in the big-dog races that we want to run in.
Q: What does all this mean for Dayton 6th, the NIL collective that supports UD athletes?
A: Dayton 6th has obviously been an extraordinary partner, and they’re going to continue to be a partner. I think that the university will have the primary contractual relationship with the players. Dayton 6th, really from its inception, we tried to position it a true marketing agency that would allow players to enter into legitimate endorsement deals with community partners and others. I still think that they will serve that role when it makes sense, but in the past, they had the primary relationship with the players because we were unable to do so.
Q: College sports have changed so much in the last four years. Some fans have been vocal about their displeasure. Have you seen any negative effect on ticket sales?
A: So far, our ticket renewals are trending at the same rate. If you match dates on the calendar, we might be even just slightly ahead. We haven’t seen an erosion there. We’re definitely operating in the most unsettled, fast-changing environment, really, in college sports history. The old model’s gone, and the new model’s being built in real time.
I’ve definitely heard from fans that it’s challenged their view of college sports. Some are stuck on the fence, trying to accept the new reality. Others may not want to accept it. I certainly respect anyone’s decision. I think the challenge is either you participate in a way that fits your institution, or you just disappear into irrelevancy. That’s something that we have to battle with.
We continue to have a fan base that has stepped up in a variety of different periods throughout my time here, as it did for Tom Frericks in building UD Arena back in the ‘60s. We seem to rise to the occasion. So far, that’s the sense that I have received. But, of course, there’s definitely some angst in there with changing rosters. They wish maybe we had some more stability as we did in the quote “good old days” of roster consistency and watching players grow up from freshmen to seniors.
A: Are these athletes signing contracts with you now?
Q: All of our players have a contract between themselves and the University of Dayton. We have essentially agreed to terms and conditions to purchase and use their name, image and likeness rights.
The deals are one-year deals. I think the vast majority of contracts in the early phase of this across the college sports spectrum have been that. We’re certainly not opposed to contract lengths that make sense. I think the vast majority of players — not just at Dayton, I’m talking nationally — have seemingly favored one-year deals to keep their market value so they can adjust if they see fit. We’ll see how it goes. We’re in the first inning of a really long game.
Obviously, we’d like to get to the point where you have some roster stability, where you have contractual relationships that mean something. I think the business is a little ways away from having what you see in the pros in terms of three- and four-year deals.
Q: There has been an appeal to the settlement. There could be more lawsuits. What’s next in this new era?
A: College sports has always had a troubled relationship with education and money. I think that complicated relationship is going to continue. The Power 4 owns and operates the new College Sports Commission. Negativity is easy. It doesn’t take a lot of courage to be a critic.
As a business, we have to try to believe that the settlement was entered into with good intentions, and while imperfect, it does represent a meaningful step in the right direction. But at the same time, I think history reminds us to be skeptical.
We’ve seen a lot of press conferences and press releases over the years that have offered ambitious reforms that have fallen short. Everyone wants rules until those rules apply to them. The real test is going to be forthcoming. I think the framework is going to give the business an opportunity to try to avoid continuous litigation and try to have schools have a sense of fairness. History does give us a reason to temper our enthusiasm a little bit.
At Dayton, we’re best served right now trying to take it as a meaningful step and take that step as far as it can go. There have already been people that have challenged it on Title IX grounds, and I’m sure there’s going to be more challenges forthcoming, but hopefully leaders and coaches and schools try to take it as an opportunity to get the ship a little bit more on course.
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