By Guy Page

Like almost every other major university athletic program, the University of Vermont is planning to pay student athletes to play varsity sports.

Nick Hall, a spokesperson for the UVM Athletic Department, said Tuesday, May 13 that due to confidentiality concerns, UVM can’t confirm the names of the students, the amounts they will be paid, how many students will be paid, nor the sports they will play.

However, he did confirm there will be more than one paid student-athlete – “a handful,” he said – spread out over several sports. 

Men’s basketball seems a likely candidate. The team has reached the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament ten times, in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Vermont has appeared in the NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship six times since making the move to Division I in 1974–75, including trips to the Frozen Four in 1996 and 2009, according to Wikipedia. The program has produced 18 NHL players. 

The men’s soccer team won the national championship for the first time last year. The women’s basketball team also has appeared in the NCAA national tournament. 

Hall also stressed that the deals are pending finalization of implementation of a court case that threw open the doors to paying student-athletes. According to Wikipedia, the House v. NCAA settlement is a landmark agreement that addresses antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA, allowing college athletes to receive compensation for their name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights, and establishing a revenue-sharing framework. The settlement includes a $2.8 billion payout to current and former athletes and aims to reshape the landscape of college sports by providing more financial opportunities for student-athletes.

According to the NCAA website, the Division I Board of Directors in May adopted changes to NCAA rules that would take effect if the House settlement is ultimately approved by the court. More than 150 rules will be eliminated to allow for schools to provide additional benefits to student-athletes under the settlement, as a first step toward further implementation.

Moving forward, if final approval of the settlement is granted, NCAA rules will permit schools to provide direct financial payments to student-athletes, including for use of a student-athlete’s name, image and likeness. Schools have until June 15 to decide whether to opt to provide benefits that would be permissible under the settlement for the coming academic year. 

The board’s actions included approving a number of proposals contingent on final federal court approval:

• Permitting schools to provide full scholarships to all student-athletes on a declared roster and eliminating sport-by-sport scholarship maximums, giving schools much greater flexibility in providing athletics aid and doubling the scholarships available in women’s sports. 
• Modifying rules to allow autonomy conference schools and others who opt to offer settlement-related benefits to provide up to $20.5 million in direct financial benefits to student-athletes.  

• Introducing rules intended to bring clarity and stability to the NIL environment for all Division I schools, including allowing for additional independent review of third-party NIL agreements between student-athletes and entities that are associated with a particular school.