Big Ten's Tony Petitti anticipates House settlement to be filed this week, football roster limits

INDIANAPOLIS – Tony Petitti and the Big Ten have officially moved into the top echelon of college football.

Standing at the podium inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Tuesday, four new logos were behind him: Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington. Now an 18-team conference, Petitti and his counterpart in the Southeastern Conference, Greg Sankey, played a pivotal role in reshaping the college football landscape.

The duo was pivotal in the six-year, $7.8 billion College Football Playoff contract signed this spring, which gives 29% annually to the Big Ten and SEC, more than $21 million per school.

The Big Ten also signed off on the House v. NCAA settlement agreement. Petitti shared Tuesday he’s anticipating the long-form settlement to be submitted this week. Agreed on back in May, the settlement pays $2.77 billion in back damages to athletes over 10 years. The second piece of the settlement is revenue sharing, allowing institutions to pay athletes $20-22 million annually.

“Yeah, there’s a lot to unpack in the House settlement,” Petitti said. “We expect it to be filed, hopefully, this week and then go through the process with Judge [Claudia] Wilken to get it to a final position sometime, we’re hoping, in the next several months. That new model is going to require a lot of changes in terms of how we operate. We now have a situation where schools can provide benefits directly to student-athletes. There’s a cap on that system. We have to monitor what schools are spending, so you need a reporting system there that doesn’t exist.”

Tony Petitti calls for process to evaluate ‘true NIL deals’

As part of the House settlement, the NCAA and Power 5 conferences added language that NIL deals must be “true NIL.” Pay has been described as “fair market value,” which could be established through disclosure data and an NIL clearinghouse. Similar models have been tossed around in Congressional bills, but none have picked up momentum.

It’s also unclear what enforcement will look like.

“We need a process to evaluate true NIL deals,” Petitti said Tuesday. “We want student-athletes to be able to take advantage of their name and likeness. And we need to make sure that’s what’s really happening. Look, the role of third parties to the extent that third parties can connect student-athletes to real NIL opportunities, that’s a great thing. I think that’s the priority.

“In this new model, student-athletes will have sort of three areas that they can take advantage of. They’ll still retain their scholarships, the academic benefits, the connection to academics – that’s vitally important. They’ll be able to receive direct compensation from their institutions. Third, they’ll be able to capitalize on NIL to the extent that their NIL rights have value either locally or nationally.”

Conferences focusing on roster limits

As previously reported, scholarship increases are coming to college sports, but so are roster size limits – including in college football. As has been previously reported and confirmed by On3, college football commissioners are discussing a 105 roster cap limit.

Yahoo! Sports reported last week that Sankey said baseball will be in the mid-30s. The Big Ten has been viewed as a conference pushing for a larger roster size. Tony Petitti wouldn’t comment on an exact number.

“Yeah, look, I’m not going to sort of point to a specific number right now,” he said. “I think we’re close to coming to a consensus with all the conferences. I’m not going to argue. I think we were maybe on the higher end. Ultimately, the goal is to come to something.

“I think we’re doing something for the first time. We’re going into a season where the season is going to be longer. The playoff has expanded. There are more games. We’re making decisions, and we’re sort of going to have to see how it plays out.”