U of I, over the past 5 years, has taken steps toward adding men's hockey to their list of varsity sports.
NIL and the Alston decision is being cited by AD Whitman as a reason that they are discontinuing the process.
"college athletics is now existing in an incredibly fluid, dynamic environment, including Alston awards, NIL, and student-athlete employment rights. We are investing heavily in new benefits for student-athletes, which increases the marginal cost associated with any new sport offerings. Such intense disruption has created ambiguity about the future, and we believe it unwise for Illinois Athletics to expand our sport model in such an uncertain environment."
https://fightingillini.com/news/202...continues-exploration-of-mens-ice-hockey.aspx
I (and others) have posted the opinion that NIL will help the star athlete, but will negatively impact the non-star and non-revenue sport athletes. I believe that schools will begin to cut many non-revenue sports to try to remain competitive in revenue sports (primarily MBB and FB), thus reducing the total number of athletes that will have the opportunity to compete in D1. UI isn't (yet) cutting sports, but ending a 5-year initiative to add men's hockey aligns with that assertion. There will be no opportunity to earn a scholarship (or even walk on) to a D1 hockey team at Illinois. When some D1 schools will not be able to field competitive teams -- because they don't have the booster base to provide the pay-to-play incentives to athletes -- (I believe) we'll even see some smaller programs drop their "revenue" sports from D1.
We're beginning to see the dominos fall, that will largely decrease opportunities in college athletics.
NIL and the Alston decision is being cited by AD Whitman as a reason that they are discontinuing the process.
"college athletics is now existing in an incredibly fluid, dynamic environment, including Alston awards, NIL, and student-athlete employment rights. We are investing heavily in new benefits for student-athletes, which increases the marginal cost associated with any new sport offerings. Such intense disruption has created ambiguity about the future, and we believe it unwise for Illinois Athletics to expand our sport model in such an uncertain environment."
https://fightingillini.com/news/202...continues-exploration-of-mens-ice-hockey.aspx
I (and others) have posted the opinion that NIL will help the star athlete, but will negatively impact the non-star and non-revenue sport athletes. I believe that schools will begin to cut many non-revenue sports to try to remain competitive in revenue sports (primarily MBB and FB), thus reducing the total number of athletes that will have the opportunity to compete in D1. UI isn't (yet) cutting sports, but ending a 5-year initiative to add men's hockey aligns with that assertion. There will be no opportunity to earn a scholarship (or even walk on) to a D1 hockey team at Illinois. When some D1 schools will not be able to field competitive teams -- because they don't have the booster base to provide the pay-to-play incentives to athletes -- (I believe) we'll even see some smaller programs drop their "revenue" sports from D1.
We're beginning to see the dominos fall, that will largely decrease opportunities in college athletics.
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