Last year, in an effort to give student-athletes more benefits, players from the Northwestern football team began the legal process of forming a union. Their goal? To formally allow student-athletes to be employed by the NCAA. While the vote has apparently already taken place, the results have yet to be released.
“The Northwestern thing brought everything to light,” said Utah athletic director Chris Hill.
No matter what the outcome is, the fact that this group of student-athletes made a push to unionize and break the mold is making a change in the student-athlete world.
In late October, the Pac-12 decided to pass a new reform to benefit student-athletes even further. Here is a brief list of the newly-added policies per the official Pac-12 website:
“Athletic scholarships will be guaranteed for four years for student-athletes in all sports.
Student-athletes who leave school before graduating will be able to use the remainder of their educational expenses later to earn their degrees.
Medical expenses for student-athletes who are injured during their college athletic careers will be covered for up to four years after a student-athlete leaves the institution.
Student-athletes who transfer between Pac-12 institutions will be able to receive athletic scholarships immediately.
Student-athletes will be represented in the conference governance structure.”
From a national standpoint, this is huge news. But when it comes to how Utah operates things, not much will change.
“It’s not that complicated, but there are some little nuances that we had to make sure we all understood,” Hill said.
Hill used the football team to explain some of these “little nuances.” In regards to the scholarship rule, the football team is allowed 85 scholarships. According to the new rules, athletic scholarships will be guaranteed for four years. However, there are instances where this isn’t the case. Hill mentioned teams have the option to offer a one-year scholarship to potential walk-on athletes who have already been with the team.
“We’d hate to have a walk-on that’s a junior and giving all the time and not have a scholarship,” Hill said.
The transfer policy has caused the most confusion. Once the reform is put in place, athletes will be able to transfer within the Pac-12, but just like any other NCAA athlete, he or she will have to sit out for a year before participating at his or her new team and school. The only difference between how things are currently and how things will be is the athlete can keep the scholarship they previously had at their old school.
The men’s basketball team has seen their share of transfers over the last few years. Head coach Larry Krystkowiak has seen both sides of the spectrum, as athletes have transferred both into and out of the program. Krystkowiak understands the positive influence these news rules can have on the student-athletes, but he wants to read the fine print before giving a firm opinion.
“It’s a little bit dangerous,” Krystkowiak said. “Some of those things are a little bit out of our control. Signing a kid to a four-year deal, I wanna know what’s written in there if the kid decides he doesn’t like playing basketball anymore and he’s just going through the motions … I get it, it’s all student-athlete welfare, and we want to set the bar high and do some things that maybe other leagues aren’t doing, but I really don’t know how it’s going to have an impact.”
With the new rules comes the possibility of even more benefits for student-athletes, and the Pac-12 may already be working on more changes. These may include assistance in balancing life as a student-athlete.
“[Time demand] to me, is one of the best things that we can do, is really figure out how to control the time demands of student-athletes,” Hill said. “That’s the next thing that I would like to see get done.”
The new rules are bringing change to the Pac-12 and potentially the entire nation if other conferences follow suit. According to Hill, these changes will have a positive effect for student-athletes, as well as athletics in general.
“I think it makes all of us in the league commit to doing things,” Hill said. “It sends a message that we’re open to do that. It’s the right thing to do, shows people we are open and gives us a chance to look at other things we want to do that are fine … I feel this is a natural growth.”
 
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