CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Ivy League will not join the antitrust settlement that will allow schools to pay their players directly, a decision that leaves the conference of eight elite academic institutions clinging to college sports’ amateur model even as it is increasingly abandoned by the NCAA’s biggest powers.
Ivy League executive director Robin Harris said in an email to players and coaches this week that the conference will maintain its scholarly focus rather than accept the roster and endorsement regulations included in the House settlement that will shape the NCAA’s latest leap toward professionalism.
“This decision to ‘not opt in’ means the Ivy League and its schools … will continue to provide an educational intercollegiate athletics model that is focused on academic primacy and the overall student-athlete experience,” Harris wrote.
“I firmly believe that the totality of the Ivy League model — one that offers student-athletes an option with world-class academics and an opportunity for personal growth while yielding consistent national athletics success — is a well-rounded experience that will continue to resonate in this evolving and uncertain era of college sports.”
The $2.8 billion House settlement would resolve antitrust claims accusing the NCAA and its five biggest athletic conferences of conspiring to prevent players from getting their cut as college sports grew from a nice little extracurricular activity into a billion-dollar business.
The agreement also replaces sport scholarship limits with roster caps and aims to take control of the new and anarchic world of name, image and likeness, in which athletes can be paid for endorsements. The NIL loophole led to millions for athletes — but only from third parties.
Schools, which were previously allowed only to compensate athletes with scholarships and a cost of attendance stipend, will be able to pay them directly if a federal judge signs off on the House settlement in early April. (The Ivy League does not give out athletic scholarships, though it does award funding based on academic merit and financial need.)
The Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 have agreed to the settlement. The smaller athletic conferences, including the Ivy League, must decide whether to opt in.
Harris said the conference “will not be changing our rules in response to the pending House antitrust settlement.” The decision was first reported by The Daily Pennsylvanian, the Penn school newspaper. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the email from a Brown University athlete on Friday.
“The Ivy League remains committed to its foundational principles and longstanding rules that intentionally foster student participation in intercollegiate athletics as an important aspect of a holistic education,” Harris said in a statement that was emailed to the AP. “Ivy League institutions will continue to offer an experience that resonates with student-athletes, and we firmly believe the League will continue to thrive competitively as one of the top five athletics conferences across all of Division I.”
In the email to players and coaches, Harris said the decision does not affect their standing as Division I members or their access to NCAA championships. (While the big-money sports like football and basketball are dominated by power conferences like the Big Ten and SEC, the Ivies are competitive in the non-revenue sports, boasting, for example, of the fifth-most medalists at the 2024 Olympics of any NCAA conference.)
Harris also wrote that Ivy athletes will still be able “to benefit from all legitimate NIL opportunities.” But the schools will not be taking control of them.
“We continue to believe in our league’s strong position in the drastically changing landscape of intercollegiate sports,” Brown athletic director Grace Calhoun wrote when she forwarded the Ivy League email to the school’s athletes. “And we will continue to navigate our way forward.”
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Jimmy Golen covers sports and law for the AP.
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