FILE - South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court, April 17, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
By: Seth Tupper
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – South Dakota won special terms for itself and financial concessions for universities across the country while settling a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to a Wednesday announcement from state Attorney General Marty Jackley.
The NCAA is the governing body for the highest level of college athletics. Jackley and the South Dakota Board of Regents sued the NCAA last year. The lawsuit alleged that a proposed $2.8 billion nationwide agreement to compensate athletes for their past participation in Division I sports would disproportionately burden smaller Division I schools, including South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota.
Jackley said Wednesday in a news release that the NCAA will use a budget surplus of $55 million to reduce the amount of money that athletic conferences will have to pay toward the proposed athlete compensation agreement. The reduction will occur during the first year of the proposed decade of payments from conferences.
The NCAA, in a separate news release, said the surplus is available because “the national office surpassed financial goals for the fiscal year.” The NCAA’s release does not mention South Dakota’s lawsuit but says the decision to reduce the financial burden on member schools was made “in consultation with South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley.”
A copy of the settlement terms, provided by the Attorney General’s Office, shows that the NCAA agreed to credit Jackley “for his efforts in giving small schools and conferences relief.”
Jackley said the settlement reduces by 33% the amount that universities will pay toward the first year of the proposed $2.8 billion athlete compensation agreement, saving approximately $2 million for the Summit League and the Missouri Valley Conference, which include the two South Dakota schools.
“This settlement is for and about our student athletes,” Jackley said in his release.
The settlement also “provides the attorney general an opportunity to work with the NCAA on future reductions and stipulates that funding of the newly created Women’s Basketball Performance Fund remain intact with no reductions,” Jackley’s news release said. The performance fund, created in January, rewards teams that advance to the Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, similar to a previously existing arrangement for men’s teams.
In South Dakota-specific provisions, the settlement commits the NCAA president and select staff to meet with the presidents of SDSU, USD, the Summit League and Sioux Falls leaders to discuss “NCAA issues currently impacting state schools and opportunities to host future NCAA championships in the state.” During that meeting, the settlement terms say, the NCAA president “will acknowledge and credit the Summit League for the large attendance numbers the League has generated at the men’s and women’s basketball championships as a result of hosting the events in South Dakota.”
The NCAA also agreed to pay the South Dakota Board of Regents $24,815 to reimburse it for expenses incurred during the litigation.
The broader issue underlying the litigation is a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the NCAA’s prohibition on athlete compensation was a violation of antitrust laws. That led to a proposed $2.8 billion agreement last year to settle several class action lawsuits against the NCAA. In that litigation, athletes sued to recover back payment for their participation in college athletics. A federal judge in California is deciding whether to give final approval to the $2.8 billion agreement, known as the House v. NCAA settlement.
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