Direct revenue sharing appears set to come to St. Bonaventure athletics, as athletic director Bob Beretta and university president Dr. Jeff Gingerich explained in a virtual presentation to alumni and supporters Thursday night.
SBU officially declared its intent to “opt in” to the House v. NCAA Settlement on Friday. In the House case, a class-action lawsuit against the power conferences over name, image and likeness revenue, a settlement was granted preliminary approval in October and needs a final sign-off from United States District Court Judge Claudia Wilken on April 7.
Major schools in the “power four” (SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12) are mandated to abide by the settlement, while others had the choice of opting in or out and remaining “status quo” by a deadline of March 1.
Beretta and athletic department leaders met with all SBU student-athletes to discuss the issue on Monday and with athletes’ parents on Tuesday. He also discussed the topic in Tuesday’s Dick Joyce Sports Symposium, held by the Jandoli School of Communication. Beretta’s come a full 180 degrees on the topic since the fall, he said.
“In full disclosure when we started speaking about this back in the fall, I was not of a mind that that we should opt in,” Beretta said Thursday night, “and and the more I’ve researched, talked to colleagues, talked to conferences, I feel like we have no choice but to opt in now, because the the opportunity costs of not opting in could be devastating to our success.”
Schools that choose the status quo are subject to a “fair market value” review and approval of any NIL deal over $600.
“I just had a conversation with someone at the Atlantic 10 yesterday,” Beretta said, “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 because the fear of that $600 limit, it could be very restrictive on attracting players and retaining talent.
“And we want the best possible student-athlete to attend St. Bonaventure. We want them to be excellent academically, excellent socially, excellent athletically, and it’ll be very difficult to attract players without the certainty of being able to share enhanced benefits with them. I think we’ve heard this many times and 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.”
By opting in, the schools will be allowed to directly pay student-athletes to a reported cap north of $20 million. Former student-athletes, who competed between 2016 and 2024 are also entitled to backpay for NIL through the NCAA. Bona’s projected portion of the backpay settlement amounts to $260,000 per year over 10 years, in the form of reduced payment from the NCAA to the university. All Division I institutions from that 2016-24 period are subject to backpay terms, regardless of their “opt in” status.
Gingerich acknowledged the unfairness — in his opinion — of that amount, considering that a big chunk of the backpay will go to former football players at the power conferences.
“That portion of the settlement, $260,000 per year, we will be receiving that much less each year, which we generally count on, for the next 10 years,” Gingerich said in Thursday’s webinar presentation and Q&A. “But that’s regardless of whether we opt in or whether we do not opt in.
“I’ll be very transparent that I actually consider that to be very unfair for schools like ours to be paying back players of other universities, but that’s one of the realities of the court case and it doesn’t depend on whether we opt to or not.”
So what are the net effects of opting in? Beretta and Gingerich’s presentation highlighted some pros and cons of each option. By opting in, Bona will be able to “provide benefits to student-athletes freely at intitution’s discretion.” The new arrangement puts NIL compensation on the schools, rather than through a collective, although “traditional” NIL deals are still available to athletes, such as sponsorships through local businesses, Beretta noted.
Donations to the university are tax deductible, unlike those to an NIL collective, but Bona’s collective will still have a role to play after a transition period plays out.
“Team Unfurl will continue to actively try to gain membership and that’s going to be a key component of this,” Beretta said. “They’re going to serve in a supplementary role. A lot of the responsibilities that Team Unfurl has maintained, they will retain those moving forward and still try to attract passive revenue streams that we’ve begun.
“The one major component that they will offload (is) the mechanics of how those benefits are delivered and the collective, the folks there, won’t have to worry about that. That will fall into the athletic department and we’ll work with our legal team to accomplish that.”
On the negative side, the settlement terms come with roster limits, which could slightly impact the number of players on the men’s lacrosse and baseball teams, Beretta said, while the athletic department is already planning to increase other rosters including track and field. That trade-off should even out in enrollment. Bona’s opt-in isn’t binding: schools can revisit their decisions on a year-to-year basis.
On Thursday’s webinar, Gingerich acknowledged the importance of athletics even at a relatively small school like SBU.
“Part of that has to do with the fact that we are one of the smallest Division I schools in the country, particularly by budget. So these are big questions right now,” We have to continue to ask ourselves how important it is to stay in Division I, how important it is to stay in Atlantic 10 and how important is it to stay competitive in both of those? The reality is the answer after lots of conversation is kind yes to all of those. It’s important for us and for the future of the university. We’ll always, always be an academic institution at our core and along with that, the spirit of St. Bonaventure is motivated by its athletics and basketball.”
And opting in, clearly, is what Bona’s leaders feel best gives them a chance to still compete in A-10 hoops.
