March 2, 2025

Pollock: St. Bonaventure joins NCAA settlement to get $2.8 billion paid to current and former collegiate athletes

Student-athletes who were St Bonaventure Bonnies between 2016 and 2024 are entitled to back pay through NIL and the NCAA

(Cutline: Ed O’Bannon paved the way for college athletes to make millions)

By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist

If you’re confused by the House vs. NCAA Settlement in the matter of NIL (Name, Image and Likeness), take a number.

This all started back in 2009 when UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon noticed his image was used in a college basketball video game without his permission or compensation.

O’Bannon and other players sued the NCAA and won, the court ruling the organization’s ban on compensation was too restrictive.

Then the NCAA, in 2021, approved an NIL policy allowing players to monetize their skills.

But alas, the NCAA, as it habitually does, activated the policy with the touch of a blacksmith, failing to take into consideration that NIL restrictions differed from state-to-state and school-to-school.

Chaos followed especially since the schools weren’t running the program which fell to the boosters, that bastion of honor and integrity.

That got us to where we are today with college athletes filing a class action lawsuit against the NCAA’s power conferences and they prevailed in October.

The SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 were mandated to abide by the settlement while other Div. I schools had the option of opting in or out by March 1.

Three quarters of the “Big 4” opted in -by Saturday — UB, St. Bonaventure and Niagara — while Canisius demurred.

To be part of the settlement, St. Bonaventure will pay some $263,000 for the next 10 years as its part of the nationwide $2.8 billion settlement that will be paid to current and former collegiate athletes. Bona must also adhere to the NCAA’s new roster and scholarship limits. St. Bonaventure’s lacrosse and baseball teams will take a hit but Bob Beretta, SBU’s athletic director, maintains that will be offset by an expanded track & field team among others.

Beretta admits at first he was totally against opting in last fall in light of the $2,630,000 investment over a decade.

“FULL DISCLOSURE, when we first started speaking about this, I was not of a mind we should opt in,” he said. “(But) the more I’ve researched, talked to colleagues, talked to conferences, I feel like we have no choice but to opt in.

“The opportunity costs of not opting in could be devastating to opur success.”

Beretta continued, “I had a conversation with someone at the Atlantic 10 the other day, and they said they don’t see how any school in the Atlantic 10 will be able to remain competitive if they don’t opt into this agreement.”

Schools, such as Canisius, who opt out are subject to a “fair market value” review and any NIL deal they make valued at over $600 must be approved by the NCAA.

“We want the best possible student-athlete to attend St. Bonaventure, we want them to be excellent academically, socially and athletically,” Beretta continued, “It’ll be very difficult to attract players without the certainty of being able to share enhanced benefits with them

“You see it in baseball … investing, spending money, doesn’t guarantee success. But if we don’t invest it almost guarantees failure. It just doesn’t give us an opportunity to get to the starting line.”

STUDENT-ATHLETES (that phrase makes me choke in this era of the transfer portal) who competed for Bona between 2016 and ’24 are entitled to back pay through NIL and the NCAA.

Bona’s projected amount for that span is $260,000.

That figure plus the 10 years of $263,000 payments to the NCAA is a source aggravation to some members of Bona’s faculty and staff who feel that the men’s basketball team, in particular, is the benefactor of special treatment at a university facing its own financial stresses including academic salaries.

But there’s another way to look at it.

For years, an athletic scholarship was viewed as ample compensation for an athlete.

Ed O’Bannon changed that view by establishing the value of NIL and, in fairness, the basketball players at Bona, from 2016-24, generated income for the school and helped maintain its national reputation. A person in Vallejo, Calif. might know about St. Bonaventure but it’s not because of its accounting department.

BONA PRESIDENT Jeff Gingerich pointed out, “We’re one of the smallest Div. I schools in the country, particularly by budget. We have to ask ourselves how impofrtant it is to stay in Div. I, how important it is to stay in the Atlantic 10 and how important it is to say competitive in both of those.

“The answer is kind of ‘Yes.’ It’s important to us and for the future of the university. We’ll always be an academic institution at our core. And along with that, the spirit of St. Bonaventure is motivated by athletics and basketball.”

He concluded, “Opting in, clearly, is what Bona leaders feel best gives (us) a chance to still compete in A-10 hoops.”

(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)

Read more on the Bonnies and Bills from Chuck:

• St. Joe’s is looming as a big test for the Bonnies

• A critical stretch for St. Bonaventure basketball

• Part II: McDermott is building a team to win the Super Bowl, not beat the Chiefs

• It was a different McDermott this season

• A look back at the ‘Super’ Bowl

• Pollock prediction on the Super Bowl and his annual quiz

• Part 2: What does Brandon Beane have to do to make the Buffalo Bills better?

• Part 1: Buffalo Bills’ GM Brandon Beane discusses 2024 season

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