Pay for College Athletes Kicks Off New Era of College Sports

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KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This weekend kicks off the start of the college football season and for the first time ever, players coming on the field can expect a payment from their schools. While college sports is a multibillion business in the United States, schools were barred from giving direct compensation until a landmark court ruling in June changed the rules. Still, it’s unclear how much students will earn and how money will be doled out across different teams. Sports such as football and basketball tend to bring in the lion’s share of revenue. We’ll talk about how this massive shift in college sports is playing out and what it means for student athletes, fans and schools. Guests: Daniel Rascher, professor and director of academic programs, sport management master's program at University of San Francisco Rachel Bachman, senior sports reporter, The Wall Street Journal Henry Organ, co-founder and agent, Disruptive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:06.2	This weekend kicks off the start of the college football season,
1:12.1	and for the first time ever, players coming on the field can expect a payment from their schools. While college sports is a multi-billion dollar business in the United States, schools were
1:16.4	barred from giving direct compensation until a landmark court ruling in June changed the rules.
1:23.3	This follows a bizarre era where players could make money as influencers and company spokespeople,
1:27.6	but not as players. And still with the new plan, it's unclear how much students will earn
1:32.7	and how this is all going to work. We're talking about the massive shift in college sports.
1:36.9	That's all coming up next right after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:52.9	There's always been something weird about college sports.
	...

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