Mark Pope, Kentucky in holding pattern until House settlement on April 7

The entire landscape of college sports could change in the next week as the House v. NCAA settlement will be reviewed for final court approval on April 7. Once U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken shares her ruling, schools will be able to share up to 22 percent of their annual athletic revenue with players including a $21 million cap set per school for direct compensation. The $2.8 billion settlement will also include roster limits and backpay for former student-athletes with all third-party NIL deals valued at $600 or more now required to be reported.

In the current Wild Wild West of recruiting, transparency and guardrails are coming — assuming the settlement is approved, as expected. Until then, though, Mark Pope feels his hands are tied in some areas no matter how strong a feel he has for what’s coming.

It’s an exciting time that he’s simply ready to begin now.

“It could be approved on the 7th,” Pope said during his call-in radio show Monday night. “… Although that could happen, it’s been more of her — my understanding has been more of her deal to kind of at least take a few days, or maybe take a week, 10 days — there’s no definite timeline. We’re just, in terms of that shift, we’re just in a wait-and-see mode, and then there’s all the complications of actually implementing the agreement and what that’s going to look like. It’s pretty exciting, man. Every day is something new.”

That’s impacting a lot of his day-to-day in terms of roster management and the NIL hurdles that pop up in every discussion. We’ll start big-picture and Pope’s desire to add a general manager, the way other high-profile programs have to navigate what has become free agency in college basketball with incoming and outgoing pieces while battling the draft and high school targets.

Up until this point, it’s been a by-committee approach. April 7 will give him some direction on if/when Kentucky will be able to pursue an official GM.

“General managers are really interesting. Designating someone exclusively in that spot is a calculated decision that comes with all kind of complications,” Pope said. “Right now, we’re dealing with it in-house by dividing up those responsibilities. We’ll see. Like I said, the entire landscape of college basketball and college athletics could change on (April) 7th. It could potentially send us on a brand new trajectory, or nothing could happen. We could continue down the road we are.

“I think staff and responsibilities change like that. Those decisions will become forthcoming after we get more clarity on what the world of college athletics is going to look like.”

As far as navigating the portal and getting guys to Lexington, Pope described that process as ‘chaos,’ but also ‘brilliant’ and ‘beautiful.’ Again, though, a lot can change on April 7 in terms of the NIL offers on the table and who wants to be here for the right reasons rather than going to the highest bidder.

They’re recruiting now, but much-needed clarity is potentially a week away.

“We were deep in the portal last week, we will be this week and for the next weeks and months to come,” he said. “There’s even more chaos because this settlement is pending out there and that’ll change the way we’re allowed to work in the portal. There’s chaos and uncertainty and all the things. It’s an incredible opportunity for all of our guys to figure out where they want to be and what their next step is. It’s very rarely a one-off conversation — kind of daily conversations.

“It’s fun. It’s actually a beautiful way to filter the guys that are dying to be here and do this.”

Oh, and don’t forget about the actual number of players Pope can bring in to begin with — that could potentially change, too. With this settlement could come a roster cap of 15 players, canceling the current model of 13 scholarships and additional walk-ons. In the next model, the cut-off would go away and roster spots are roster spots whether you have a scholarship or not.

That will incentivize teams to load up on depth with 15 scholarship pieces and do away with walk-ons entirely. Pope likes his system of walk-on tryouts — that’s what got Zach Tow on the roster this past season — but if the settlement passes, that may have to disappear.

“A lot of it depends on this settlement. If this settlement goes through, it actually gives us a hard roster limit that actually might do away with the chance to have walk-ons,” he said. “So the roster limit includes walk-ons, so we’ll know more about those details here in the next couple of weeks.”

A national champion being crowned in San Antonio will be among the least impactful updates coming out of Monday, April 7. The sport could — and likely will — flip upside down several hours before tip-off.