A series of reforms that deliver increased benefits to college athletes — including expanded health care coverage, increased mental health support and academic guarantees — take effect Thursday after a series of rules changes adopted by the NCAA Board of Governors and Division I members.
Also included in the benefits are a new name, image and likeness resource center; increased opportunities for student-athletes to receive help with arranging NIL deals; and a post-eligibility insurance program that benefits student-athletes in all three divisions.
"The NCAA is making changes to deliver more benefits to student-athletes for their academic success and health and well-being," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "Today's progress was made possible by DI membership committing to these investments and by student-athlete leaders leading the charge for these long overdue changes."
Core guarantees
In April 2023, the Division I Board of Directors unanimously adopted new rules — also known as "core guarantees" — that require increased support for all Division I student-athletes, effective Aug. 1, 2024.
The core guarantees include benefits that must be provided to all Division I student-athletes as a condition of their school's membership in Division I. The benefits were originally recommended by the Division I Transformation Committee in January 2023.
All schools with Division I sports programs must:
- Provide medical coverage for athletically related injuries for at least two years after graduation.
- Cover out-of-pocket medical expenses (copayments, deductibles, etc.) during a student-athlete's playing career.
- Offer degree-completion funds for up to 10 years after a college athlete's eligibility concludes, if that college athlete was previously on full scholarship or received financial aid in a head count sport.
- Provide the same scholarship protections already required of autonomy conferences.
- Attest that they provide career counseling for current and former college athletes and life skills development across a range of topics, including at minimum:
- Mental health.
- Strength and conditioning.
- Nutrition.
- Name, image and likeness opportunities.
- Financial literacy.
- Career preparation.
- Transfer requirements.
- Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
- Sexual violence prevention.
- Attest that they provide mental health services and support consistent with the NCAA'sMental Health Best Practices.
- Attest that they follow concussion management protocols in line with theNCAA Concussion Safety Protocol Checklist.
- Attest that they provide academic support services in line with NCAA rules.
NIL resources
The NCAA on Thursday launched NCAA NIL Assist, a platform designed to connect student-athletes with potential service providers, facilitate disclosures of NIL activities, and provide student-athletes with access to educational resources and insight into evolving trends within the NIL environment.
The mobile-friendly, web-based platform — available to member schools, student-athletes and their families — includes:
- A voluntary registry where agents and other interested professional service providers can submit information about their offerings and seek potential student-athlete clients.
- A "rate your experience" tool allowing student-athletes to share reviews of those same service providers, so other student-athletes can feel informed when engaging in the NIL market.
- A simple process by which NCAA schools can submit NIL disclosure data.
- Aggregated data with identifying information removedand trends about NIL agreements, including the ability to sort by subdivision, conference, sport and player position.
- Access to educational programming related to NIL, including resources about NCAA rules, tax implications and intellectual property.
The platform is available at nilassist.ncaa.org.
NCAA members alsovoted in April to allow schools to assist student-athletes with seeking and arranging NIL agreements with third parties. Student-athletes who agree to disclose their NIL deals equal to or greater than $600 in value — in alignment with IRS reporting requirements — to their school are eligible to receive that additional support.
Effective Thursday,member schools are required to anonymize and report those NIL data to the NCAA via the new platform at least twice per year.
Post-eligibility insurance coverage
Also, as of today, the NCAA is providing post-eligibility insurance coverage for all student-athletes in all divisions. The coverage extends two years after the completion of a student's college athletics experience and will cover injuries that occur while a student is practicing or competing for a school. Injuries that occur on or after Aug. 1, 2024,are covered under the policy.
The change was recommended by the Division I Transformation Committee, and the Board of Governors determined in August 2023 that the program would apply to all divisions.
Post-eligibility insurance does not replace the requirement for Division I schools and Division II and III programs that sponsor a Division I sport to provide medical care to student-athletes for athletically related injuries for two years after graduation or separation from the school.
The policy's annual premium is $26 million. The policy has a $90,000 excess limit per injury, with no deductible.Of the $90,000 available per injury, up to $25,000 will be available for mental health services related to an injury.
For student-athletes to be eligible for coverage under the policy, injuries must be sustained during participation in an NCAA qualifying intercollegiate sport (includes emerging sports), reported and documented at the time of injury, and filed with the athletics department of the school at which the student-athlete participated when the injury occurred.
Member schools will be responsible for establishing recordkeeping procedures to document all intercollegiate athletics injuries. They also will be responsible for retaining documentation of injuries until the benefit period of two years (104 weeks) plus one year is exhausted.
Student-athletes can submit claims at posteligibilityinsurance.com.