SeaTown Sports Brew - How College Athlete Compensation Could Cripple Olympic Sports

House Settlement Threatens Olympic College Sports: Impact on University Budgets, Power 5 Conferences, and the Future of UW Athletics

Aug 19, 2024

The SeaTown Sports Brew is a weekly briefing and roundup providing insight into Seattle’s sports teams and athletes. Have a tip? Leave us a comment or email me at kevin@seatownsports.org. Subscribe below if you want this in your inbox every Monday.

The Leadoff - Olympic College Sports At Risk Because of House Settlement

The Summer Olympics were awesome and I am sad I now have to watch the Mariners play baseball until I can shift focus to football. David Epstein at Range Widely wrote an insightful article on the rippling effects of the pending House settlement which, if approved, would require universities to pay their athletes for NIL rights and also allow universities to pay their athletes up to 22% of their athletics revenue.

The settlement will also require Power 5 conferences to pay back damages of up to $280 million annually, which comes out to a little over $4 million per school.

Epstein’s piece points out that there may be negative implications on the horizon for the “Olympic” sports at these Power 5 schools. If we place a sport in this category, it is likely a sport that does not generate revenue. Because these Power 5 schools likely will have to pay back damages and account for paying their athletes moving forward, there will be less money to go around at these institutions. And with less money, certain sports will be on the chopping block. Unfortunately, the Olympic sports are likely the first to go, as they are not the same cash cows as college football and basketball. With these sports being cut, Epstein posits that the United States Olympic pipeline might “leak” as a result.

My alma mater Loyola Marymount University saw this coming and even though the school does not have a football team, decided to cut men’s cross country, men’s rowing, men’s track and field, women’s rowing, women’s swimming, and women’s track and field. LMU is just the start. We will likely see more schools take this proactive step, in anticipation of the House settlement.

Well, how about a bigger school like the University of Washington, are its Olympic sports at risk? Christian Caple at On Montlake asked UW Athletic Director Pat Chun this question, Chun responded with sort of a non-answer:

“I told our coaches, we need to operate from realities. Whatever the realities are, we’ll craft our plan around that,” Chun said. “There are schools in our conference that sponsor 30-plus sports — we’re at 22. This institution has been comfortable at this size for a very long period of time. Once this new model is defined, we’ll have to make some decisions.1

At least he’s being honest.

So, if you were looking for a downside to paying college athletes. This is your downside. I don’t know what the solution is, but it seems like the answer might be more massive media deals, more conference consolidation, and potentially, generous revenue-sharing between the Power 5. That’s perhaps another write-up for another day. Onto the rest of the Brew . . .

Winners and Losers

Losers - Seattle Mariners (64-61) - This past week might have been the worst all season for the Mariners as they lost five of six games to the lowly Detroit Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates. Things got so bad that members of the Seattle sports media began openly suggesting that manager Scott Servais’ status on the team was in jeopardy. The M’s salvaged the week by beating the Pirates 10-3 on Sunday.
Losers- Seattle Sounders FC (10-8-7) - LAFC knocked out the Sounders from the Leagues Cup quarterfinals, 3-0. The Sounders have now dropped five in a row to LAFC.
Winners - Seattle Seahawks (1-1) - The Seahawks lost a meaningless preseason game against the Tennessee Titans, 16-15. They count as winners because no important players were injured. Plus, Sam Howell threw a Michael Penix-esque touchdown to Easop Winston Jr who made a Rome Odunze-esque catch:
Losers - Seattle Storm (17-10) - Hopefully the past two games were just a result of a post-Olympics hangover. The Storm fell to Atlanta Dream and Indiana Fever this past weekend. In the team’s 92-75 loss to the Fever, the Storm shot a dismal 38.9% from the field.

On-Deck

The Mariners open up a three-game series today against the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers (73-52). The M’s then head back home for a three-game weekend set against the San Francisco Giants (63-63). All games will be televised on ROOT Sports.
The Sounders (10-8-8) resume their MLS regular season, traveling to Minnesota (9-10-6) on Saturday 8/24, 3:30 p.m. PT ; on MLS Season Pass and Fox.
The Seahawks (1-1) host the Cleveland Browns on Saturday, 8/24 at 7:00 p.m. on King 5 and NFL Network.
The Storm (17-10) travel to DC to take on the Mystics (6-21) on Tuesday 8/20, 4 p.m. PT. The game will be televised on Fox 13+/Amazon Prime (Seattle).
The Reign (2-5-9) resume their season against the North Carolina Courage on Sunday, 8/25 at 7 p.m. PT. The match will be aired on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+. The Reign are retiring Megan Rapinoe’s jersey at this match.

Seattle Athlete of the Week

Denzel Boston (So.), WR - Washington Huskies Football

You’ll be hearing some version the following refrain over and over again, at least at the start of the season: “the Huskies lost three wide receivers to the NFL, and replacing that production will be a challenge.” And while I agree with the sentiment, there has been buzz growing around Washington sophomore wide receiver Denzel Boston during training camp. Boston appeared in all but one of the team’s games last season, but did not collect nearly the same amount of highlights or playing time as Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan, and Ja’Lynn Polk. Boston is talented and is already showing his ability to potentially become quarterback Will Rogers’ favorite target. To end this with some video evidence, take a look at this one-handed grab from Saturday’s mock game:2

This Week in Seattle Sports History

On August 23, 1982, Mariners pitcher Gaylord Perry was ejected for throwing a spitball. It was Perry’s first and only time he had ever been ejected for throwing an illegal spit ball. Perry threw the pitch for most of his career, despite its status as an illegal pitch.