In 2025, a court settlement (House v. NCAA) agreed to by the NCAA without a vote of its membership permitted Division I universities to provide their Division I college athletes with up to $20.5 million in cash annually beginning July 1, 2025– in addition to existing scholarships covering the full cost of education. (See analysis here.) Many athletics administrators contend that, unlike existing college scholarships, these new cash payments should NOT be considered financial assistance under the law. They want these new payments to be exempt from Title IX.
This is a longstanding tactic. As early as 1974, when Title IX regulations were first drafted, Congress rejected four attempts to exempt revenue-generating sports from Title IX. Over time, many other efforts have been made to weaken Title IX, often through proposals that would have exempted football or men’s basketball.
The House v. NCAA Settlement does not specify how the new payments are to be distributed. It does not authorize schools to violate Title IX. However, schools have already begun distributing the cash unfairly, with roughly these proportions: 75 percent to football players, 15 percent to men's basketball players, 5 percent to women's basketball players, and 5 percent to other men's and women's sports. These figures are based on statements from athletics administrators to the media because no reports to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) are due until the end of this school year.
Without Title IX protections, these financial awards will mostly go to male football and basketball players. Women’s sports and smaller men’s sports could be completely cut as funds are redirected to support "priority" male athletes. Female athletes will continue to have fewer opportunities for participation, financial aid, and fair treatment. A 2024 government report found that, because OCR does not strictly enforce Title IX, 93% of schools are not complying with the law that is over 50 years old, and few have invested as much in women's sports as they have in men’s sports to generate revenue. Women's College Sports Need Your Help!
Here’s where you come in. Please consider responding to this “Request for Information: Stabilizing College Sports and Preserving Opportunities for Athletes,” prepared by the Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator Bill Cassidy. You can answer any one or more of the 25 open-ended questions. Or, given that time is an issue for all of us, you might just answer what many of us consider the most important Title IX question, one of only two that mentions of Title IX!
“How does revenue sharing under the House Settlement affect schools’ ability to comply with Title IX requirements?”
Feel free to use your own words or borrow from the following language.
Most importantly, Congress must:
1) Clarify that Title IX covers any new financial benefits. Whether these funds are called NIL, revenue-sharing, or something else, common sense shows that money given to athletes falls under the term “benefits” in Title IX’s wording: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In other words, NCAA member institutions must provide equitable revenue-sharing benefits to men and women, in the aggregate, respectively.
2) Mandate Title IX compliance as a condition of NCAA membership.
3) Require the NCAA to mandate that its members undergo Title IX assessments every three years, conducted by their sports conferences or another third party, with one year to fix any deficiencies identified, or face ineligibility for post-season championship participation. If you have time for more, you don’t need to answer them all–only the ones you feel most strongly about.
Please submit any responses to opportunitiesforathletes@help.senate.gov.
Deadline is April 10, 2026. Thank you!
Gratefully,
Donna
Donna Lopiano Government Relations Committee
|
