The Florida Gators are in a unique position following the settlement in the NCAA vs. House case, which had served as a looming backdrop for college athletics over the past few months.
A deal was approved late Friday night and created a $2.88 billion settlement that enables athletes over the past ten years to receive back payment from their respective universities.
It has established roster limits across all sports but also allows athletes to be grandfathered out who otherwise would be forced to be cut this year.
But the most significant piece to come from the agreement is that it paves the way for colleges to now directly pay their athletes, and this is where Florida as a university is going to have an interesting choice.
Florida Gators pride themselves on being an "Everything School"
The ruling paves the way to allow schools a $20.5 million cap to pay their athletes directly. Additionally, NIL deals moving forward will have to be funneled through a clearinghouse that Deloitte will operate.
The latter part should help Florida, which isn't "poor" by NIL standards but was not the king of the hill in this space. In theory, the goal is to regulate some of the wild amounts of money being spent by some other schools, though we also know schools have ways around these regulations.
The $20.5 million cap is going to create an interesting gambit for the Gators because that can be used across all sports. Florida prides itself in being an "Everything School," and so virtually every sport in Gainesville is going to want a piece of the pie.
Compare that to a school like Ohio State, which is virtually irrelevant in college sports from January to June and may not feel the need to stretch that money across other sports, allowing it to focus more on football.
Several Big Ten or Big 12 schools are likely to find themselves in this situation, and in reverse, a school like Purdue or Houston may opt to focus on basketball.
It all creates an interesting challenge for Florida leadership to navigate and is going to require some focus from Florida's president.
Yeah, about that...