Texas A&M Aggies AD Voices Support of Historic House Settlement

Yet, even with the changes that will see cuts among other athletic department ventures, Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts is still "excited" about the positive changes coming to college athletics.

“This (settlement and resulting committee) has to work for the future of college athletics," Alberts said Monday, per the Austin American-Statesman. "It's worth saying, you know, an unregulated market that we've lived in the last three to four years is not in the best interest of anybody, including the student-athletes." 

The hope is that with the revenue sharing agreement - assuming it doesn't face further legal challenges that circumvent the ruling - there will be more oversight, and Name, Image, and Likeness will work as it was originally intended.

That means the focus will shift from individual collectives made up of wealthy boosters paying athletes directly to sign with their respective school for vast sums of money. Instead, in the world of revenue sharing, NIL deals will be agreements between athletes and legitimate businesses that want to pay them for legitimate business purposes.

While the actual agreement to the settlement took months to actually come to fruition, Texas A&M and schools across the country were already preparing for the changes that were to come. For the Aggies, that meant cutting $10 million that was previously in the budget.

"I knew that this (settlement) was coming," Alberts said, "but, you know, I think any time you have a transition, (staff changes are) kind of normal in a sense." 

While the settlement isn't totally in the clear and is free of future challenges, schools like Texas A&M are hoping that it can be at least the start to a more sustainble way forward for college athletics.