University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director Mark Wharton believes the Mocs are trending toward a “sweet spot” when it comes to building a steady source of funding for the compensation of the school’s student-athletes.
He also admitted there’s still a ways to go.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association agreed last year to settle a federal antitrust lawsuit filed by student-athletes — while the original plaintiffs in 2020 were swimmer Grant House (he was at Arizona State at the time) and basketball player Sedona Prince (who was at Oregon at the time but finished her collegiate career at TCU), it gained class-action status — seeking damages for monies they weren’t able to earn before the NCAA began permitting them to receive compensation for their name, image and likeness without suffering a loss of eligibility.
As part of the settlement, the NCAA agreed to pay $2.78 billion in damages over the next decade (ending in 2035) via Division I athletic departments, with member schools in what was then the Power Five — the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference — automatically in as defendants in the lawsuit, while those outside their ranks faced a decision on whether to opt in for the opportunity to distribute up to $20.5 million in 2025-26 (with that amount increasing each year).
UTC, a member of the Southern Conference and part of D-I’s lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision, chose to opt in almost immediately.