A new era of athlete pay in the U.S.

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

News, Business

4.6 • 5.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we’re diving into some ongoing battles over athlete pay, from college athletics to the WNBA. In the case of college sports, a recent lawsuit settlement involving the NCAA allows colleges and universities to pay their athletes directly. On the show today, sports journalist Kennington Lloyd Smith III explains how college athlete pay has evolved, how the recent House v. NCAA settlement could strain athletic departments, and what could come from the WNBA players’ current fight for more equitable pay. Plus, the sports private equity firms are eyeing.

Then, we’ll hear how one listener got involved in local government. Plus, Paralympic sled hockey gold medalist Declan Farmer answers the Make Me Smart question.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

"How college athletes will be paid after House v. NCAA settlement: NIL changes, enforcement, contracts and more" from CBS Sports
"Trump signs executive order to 'protect' college sports" from Politico
"Down to Business: Valuations are wild, returns are rocky. But women’s sports teams are in demand" from The Athletic
"The WNBA Has a Good Problem on Its Hands" from The Atlantic
"Private equity tees up to invest in youth sports" from Marketplace
"Travelers aren't big fans of TSA's facial recognition program, report finds" from Marketplace

We love hearing from you. Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone, I'm Kimberly Adams.
0:08.6	Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us.
0:13.3	And I'm Rie McRaece.
0:14.4	It is Tuesday, August 12th.
0:16.6	Thank you everyone for joining us.
0:18.6	It is Deep Dive Day.
0:20.2	And today we're going to dive into the changing landscape of athlete
0:23.6	pay.
0:24.6	That's right.
0:25.6	There are a lot of big changes happening for college athletes and in women's professional
0:30.6	sports right now, and there is a lot of big money involved.
0:34.6	So here to make us smart about this is Kennington Lloyd Smith the third. He's a
0:39.6	sports journalist who spent a long time on the college sports beat. Welcome to the show, Kenny.
0:46.1	Thank you for having me. How are y'all? I'm doing good. Rima, you doing good? Yeah, I'm here. I'm
0:52.1	good. So one of the things that kind of caught my eye, and I'm not a huge sports person, but I've
0:59.0	been seeing all this coverage about the recent House versus the NCAA lawsuit settlement, which
1:05.5	has opened the door for colleges to start directly paying their athletes. Can you give us a little bit of a backstory of
1:13.6	this case and how we got to where we are? Yeah, the House versus ASEA.7 is just the latest in
1:20.0	what seems to be kind of like this peeling back of an onion of how college athletes are being
1:26.8	paid.
1:35.8	Started with NIL, which started in in 2021, which at its core allowed athletes to earn money. This is name image likeness, yeah?
1:37.6	Name image and likeness, yes, which allowed athletes to earn money based off of who they are,
	...

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