Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/434567
UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE F rom the rise of juicy television contracts, to universities postur- ing for lucrative conference af- filiations, times they are a changin' around college athletics — by the millions — and Notre Dame athlet- ics director Jack Swarbrick believes it's time to share the wealth with the student-athletes generating these mas- sive revenues. The wave of change reached full crest in August after a ruling by a U.S. District Court judge determined that certain students-athletes needed to be compensated for the use of their like- nesses and images. The ruling, which is being appealed by the NCAA and could become tied up in court, would allow for football and men's basketball players to begin taking payments of around $5,000 per year at the start of the 2016-17 school year. Swarbrick recently threw his sup- port behind this ruling, and other in- evitable changes, when he spoke on behalf of student-athletes being com- pensated for the usage of their names, images and likenesses. During a panel discussion in mid- December at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in New York City, Swarbrick used a hypothetical com- parison between a student-musician and a student-athlete to illustrate the inequality the latter faces when it comes to earning any money while enrolled in school. "If our standard had been what's the rule for other students — captur- ing name, image and likeness out- side team activity — the musician at school doesn't have that limitation," A Strong Voice For The Student-Athletes Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick is a proponent of compensating student-athletes for the usage of their names, images and likenesses. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND