College Athletes Ready to Be Paid; Details Sketchy

After a $2.8 billion settlement between college athletes and the National Collegiate Athletic Association in June, athletes are looking for paychecks beginning this season. But how much athletes may get remains uncertain, along with, in many cases, how they will be paid.

In addition to the settlement, an executive order from President Donald Trump is in place addressing some of the related issues.

There are also competing legislative attempts to clear the confusion, which some say are doing the opposite by adding chaos to the mix.

The mostly Republican-supported Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act, or SCORE Act, may get a vote in the House this fall. While there may be enough votes for passage there, Senate approval is not as predictable.

The mostly Democrat-backed College Athlete Economic Freedom Act & College Athlete Right to Organize Act faces a tougher road to approval in the Republican-controlled House.

Both pieces of legislation deal with the umbrella issues of collegiate athletes being paid for their efforts. But the similarities disappear there.

There's also the bipartisan-sponsored College Student-Athlete Protections and Opportunities through Rights, Transparency, and Safety Act, or SPORTS Act, which has its own way of addressing some of the issues dealing with payments to college athletes.

Add to that Trump's executive order declaring that athletes are not employees, restricts third-party pay-for-play, mandates balanced funding across sports, and shields the NCAA from antitrust lawsuits.

Then, two of the larger NCAA conferences, the Big Ten and the Big 12, jumped ahead and set up a payment program for athletes through PayPal.

No doubt there will be a lot of negotiating and bargaining with everyone involved, including representatives of student-athletes, before a final payment framework is established.

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