Vol. 115, Iss. 5 | Wednesday, April 9, 2024
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
flathatnews.com | @theflathat
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COURTESY IMAGE / TRIBE ATHLETICS
PHOTOS STAFF / THE FLAT HAT
Tribe athletics at crossroads as House v. NCAA awaits verdict CHARLES VAUGHAN // FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR
College athletics is at one of the great inflection points in its long history, and the College of William and Mary is not insulated from the tides of change. In the coming months and years, the university’s administration will be forced to make several momentous decisions that will shape the future of Tribe athletics. For over a century, the philosophical framework underlying college sports was defined by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, an organization that has governed intercollegiate athletic competition since 1906. From its earliest days, the NCAA made clear that its primary mission was to establish and propagate the principle of amateurism. College athletics should be for those who participate “in competitive physical sports only for the pleasure, and the physical, mental, moral, and social benefits directly derived therefrom,” the NCAA said in 1916. The next 105 years of college athletics were shaped according to that dogma. Student-athletes were prevented from monetizing their name, image and likeness in any form, meaning they forfeited their right to do things like appear in commercials or accept endorsement deals. Scholarships and grants marked the extent of the compensation they were allowed to receive for their athletic efforts. The bedrock of amateurism wholly disintegrated in 2021 when the Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA’s restrictions on athlete compensation violated antitrust law. A cascade of further legal defeats battered the NCAA over the following years, wresting away much of its enforcement power and blurring the line between college and professional sports — to the point that
many claim the two are now indistinguishable. College athletes are now permitted to accept gifts from donors, endorse brands and more. As schools still are not allowed to directly pay their athletes, many of these opportunities are funneled through third-party NIL collectives, which attempt to lure transfers to their affiliated schools with promises of paydays. Athletes are permitted to transfer schools between seasons with essentially no restrictions, and the NCAA’s ability to enforce its eligibility rules is in question. Some players who have technically exhausted their eligibility still enter the transfer portal in the hopes that a court case will allow them to compete again. However, the most monumental change of all — one that William and Mar y has already begun reckoning with — is still impending. The House v. NCAA case, perhaps the most consequential lawsuit in the history of college athletics, was brought against the NCAA, the Power Four conferences and the Pac-12 in 2020 by four then-current college athletes. “The House legal claims say two things,” Mit Winter ’01, a prominent attorney specializing in sports law and NIL law, said. “One, that some former and current college athletes are owed back damages because they were not able to monetize their name, image and likeness before July 1, 2021. The argument is that the rule that restricted college athletes from being able to monetize their NIL violated the antitrust law. So that’s the backwards-looking part of the case.” The parties agreed to settle the case in May 2024, and the terms of the settlement were preliminarily approved in October
2024. If approved, the proposed settlement will require its defendants to distribute $2.8 billion in damages to current and former college athletes who were not able to monetize their NIL dating back to 2016. The NCAA intends to raise most of the money by reducing the revenue it distributes to all of its member institutions. There is a forward-looking part of the case, which Winter explained to The Flat Hat. “NCAA rules that prohibit schools from paying NIL compensation to athletes violate antitrust law,” Winter said. “That part of the case is seeking to change the rules to allow schools, conferences and even the NCAA to just directly pay NIL compensation to athletes.” If approved, the proposed settlement will create a system in which schools and conferences can directly share revenue with athletes, distributing it across athletic programs however they see fit. Schools would be held under a $20.5 million annual “salary cap” that would increase by 4% every year. These rules would go into effect at the start of the 2025-2026 academic year. The NCAA allowed its member institutions to opt out of the settlement but required them to submit their decisions by March 1, 2025, over a month before the release of the final terms of the settlement. The final approval hearing took place in front of federal judge Claudia Wilken Monday, April 7. Wilken is tasked with determining whether or not the settlement is fair, and she is unlikely to make her decision for days or weeks. See COMMENTARY page 4
POLITICS
Hunger-Free Campus Act fighting student food insecurity signed into law College intends to apply for state grants to support Food for All, Basic Needs Coalition in expanding resource access SAM BELMAR FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Monday, March 24, Gov. Glenn Youngkin D.P.S. ’22 signed the Hunger-Free Campus Act into law, allocating $500,000 to Virginia colleges and universities to combat food insecurity. The law establishes the Hunger-Free Campus Food Pantry Grant Program. Both public and private institutions are now eligible to apply for grants through the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia that will support existing campus food pantries. The bill’s passage into law follows months of advocacy from student groups focused on addressing food insecurity on college campuses. In a 2020 study, the United States Government Accountability Office found that 23% of all college students experience food insecurity, amounting to 3.8 million students nationwide. Experts believe these numbers have worsened in recent years as a
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result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The College of William and Mary’s Food for All organization has been at the forefront of advocacy efforts for the Hunger-Free Campus Act. Former Food for All President Allisyn Lam ’25 spoke at a Virginia Assembly press conference in January to advocate for its passage. “Many students are missing key nutritional requirements from their diets, even becoming anemic, underweight or exhibiting signs of disordered eating,” Lam said. “Some students lack the energy to attend class or complete exams without worrying that their stomachs will be heard rumbling amongst their classmates.” As a student-run club, Food for All manages two food pantries in the campus area that are open to all students, faculty and staff in need. Its main location is in the basement of the Wesley Campus Ministry, and it opened a new satellite location in Sadler 157. Food for All Co-president Bennett Snyder ’25 celebrated the new law. He explained that
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An Epistle to the Wren Journal
Patrick Feagin ‘27 questions two articles from the Wren Journal’s recent publications page 5
while data on food insecurity at the College is scarce, other state institutions provide data that contextualizes the need for well-stocked food exchanges at the College. “For William and Mary, we don’t really have the data on food insecurity on campus,” Snyder said. “For a lot of other schools in Virginia, you can basically look up ‘UVA food insecurity’ or ‘VCU food insecurity’ and be able to find a number. And those numbers range from a quarter of students to a third of students, so it’s a pretty prevalent issue across campuses in Virginia.” The regular emptying of Food for All’s shelves is an unmistakable sign of student need. “We do see a lot of movement of what we put on our shelves in our food exchanges,” Snyder said. “So I think it’s pretty clear that there is an issue.” Associate Vice President of Student Engagement and Leadership Michael Patterson serves as the cochair of the College’s Basic Needs Coalition, which was formed this semester to address both food and
Inside Variety
R em em b er i n g Gary Curtin
Second Sunday vendor passes away, leaves ArtBurn legacy on Williamsburg culture page 7
housing insecurity among students. Food for All, along with several student organizations and university departments, is represented on the committee, which has met once a month since January. Patterson outlined the nascent coalition’s goal of centralizing all of the College’s resources and streamlining access to essential resources for students. “In student affairs broadly, we noticed that there wasn’t really a lot of cross-communication in terms of what was happening,” Patterson said. “There came to be an awareness that it would be helpful to put all of the different people across campus together.” In advance of the Hunger-Free Campus Act, Patterson described the coalition’s work this semester to meet students’ needs and identify gaps in administrative support. See POLITICS page 4
Inside Sports
Tribeʼs seven-match winning streak snapped on Senior Day Despite strong play from Gurholt, Fernal, William and Mary falls to Richmond page 10