Mizzou Athletic Director Laird Veatch breaks down logistics of House v. NCAA settlement

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Athletic departments across the nation will soon be ushering in a new age of college sports, with the recent approval of the House v. NCAA settlement. On Thursday, Mizzou Athletic Director Laird Veatch took time to meet with the media and break down the logistics of revenue sharing, roster limits and the ever-shifting world of college athletics.

Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, universities will be allowed to pay their students directly with a cap of $20.5 million in revenue share money. Veatch said, as previously announced, the bulk of that money will go towards football and men's basketball. He added that other sports will be included, but not every single sport on campus will be allocated revenue sharing dollars.

Essentially, Veatch said it will go to athletes in the form of a monthly payment. However, that could be different for each athletic department across the country.

When asked if he could provide a specific breakdown of what each sport would get, he declined to comment at this time.

"I don't feel like we're in a position to to share specific sports or specific details in amounts. The reason for that, candidly, is because until we're at a point where this process allows for that kind of transparency across the board with all sports, I just candidly don't see a competitive value or reason, a strategic incentive for us to disclose those specifics. I do think that will likely happen in time across the board, but until that time, I just don't think it's in the best interest of Mizzou," Veatch said. "It's just a strategic decision that we've made at this point and likely is that comes out in the future across the board. We may we may change that position, but at this point, we feel like providing the insight we've had."

You can watch the full press conference with Veatch in the video player below.

Veatch said that he does feel like college sports is tracking towards more transparency, in terms of sharing what student-athletes and more. However, it's not there quite yet.

"In large part because we are still dealing with student-athletes and they're they are young people with protections, legal protections and some of those areas that have to be worked through and we have to get advice on before we can provide those kind of specifics," he said.

Within the $20.5 million dollars in revenue sharing money that each school is working with, every school in the Southeastern Conference will be taking $2.5 million of that and creating new scholarships. Veatch said that was a mutual agreement that each SEC member school came to, ahead of this decision.

In addition, Mizzou had previously announced that it will also be creating 60 full scholarship to the tune of $3 million, which will go to women's sports at a 2-for-1 ratio. Veatch said that the $2.5 million in scholarship that's being created by SEC institutions is inclusive of the $3 million in scholarships they intend to create.

"We have shown that, you know, we're committed to our Olympic sports and inclusive of our female sports in that, as well. We're having some real success in some of those sports, as you've seen with volleyball, gymnastics and others. So, it was just an important part of that discussion. There was a lot of things that went into our decisions over the last year, as we've been preparing for that, and investing in our Olympic sports, investing in our female sports was a big part of that," Veatch said.

Although the changes coming to college athletics has changed his role drastically, Veatch said he believes this House v. NCAA settlement will drive college athletics, as a whole, to a more stable surface, with more structure and real oversight.

"We are getting to a point where, as with revenue share, where those dollars are going to be reported to a cap system, a national system...We're going to get to a point where in if deals do go through this, this and it'll go clearinghouse and there'll be standards that have to be met...From that standpoint, I think it's good and healthy for everyone is to get to a type of environment where we're all playing by the same rules and having some consistency there."

One of the biggest questions heading into Thursday's press conference was how this will all affect name, image and likeness (NIL). Does revenue sharing take the place of NIL? How will NIL change moving forward?

Veatch said, moving forward, there will be three ways for student-athletes to get paid. It boils down to scholarships, revenue sharing and NIL. In this age of revenue share, universities will be entering into contracts with athletes, with the opportunity for multi-year contracts, as well.

Mizzou athletic director was also asked if he thinks this settlement will stick. He said he does believe that they have a good structure and foundation to work from, but now congressional support will be important.

"This is only to be successful as the members decide...If we are committed to it and give it a chance, then that's a starting place. Will there be lawsuits where there be continued outside pressures? Absolutely. That's why it is a step. But it's not it's not the last or final step...It's also why we need, you know, congressional support, right? Why we need to have at some level, some federal action that gives us a level of protection so we can continue to move forward with the collegiate model and and in a new way and a new day," he said.

While Veatch said he enjoys the challenge of tackling the ever-shifting landscape of college athletics head-on, his role as an athletic director has changed quite a bit, over the years.

"I do feel like we're more and more change managers than we have been in the past, but I think that's an important opportunity," he said. "In a lot of ways, while it's challenging, it's also a real opportunity. It's a real opportunity to positively impact your place. If you're willing to really dig in, think differently, be strategic, smart, be aggressive and how we think things through. So, I actually enjoy a lot of that process and working with a really smart team behind the scenes to, manage through all of it. But, there is no question that it's taken a significant amount of time, you know, and one of the things I struggle with on a personal basis is it doesn't allow me the time to maybe lean into some more relational or time elements with programs, team student-athletes that I would like. You know, there's things like that that you just have had to kind of take a step back because we really, you know, put time and resource and thought into this."