Keeler: Why is this Boulder woman fighting historic NCAA settlement? It’s not about money. It’s about Title IX.

For Kacie Breeding, this was never about dollars.

It was about sense.This isnt about football and basketball, said Breeding, a Boulder resident, engineer and former Vanderbilt runnerzon whos one of eight plaintiffs who filed an appeal against the NCAAs historic antitrust settlement.

I hope you get your bag.But we all were athletes at this school ...

there were not rules in place that we were on different pay rates.

We should all be getting paid the same.

You think about Caitlin Clark or Livvy Dunne, theyre superstars in their own right.

Are you going to pay them minimum wage because they werent born male and went into football and basketball?Are you a university that receives federal financial aid? Fine.

Youre subject to Title IX.

Do you insist that your athletes are not entertainers, not contractors, and certainly not employees, because they go to class? Groovy.

Then theyre students.

Which means theyre subject to Title IX, too.Look, the House settlement, which finally made it over the line last week, is a victory for student-athletes.

Anything that pokes a hole in the NCAAs cartel is a win for college sports.Yet when you read the fine print, its also a fail when it comes to Title IX, the federal mandate preventing discrimination in education that was enacted in 1972.

Which is where Breedings appeal, filed last Wednesday by the Boulder firm of Hutchinson Black and Cook, comes in.(People), if they dont understand this case, they would say, Youre in this for a money grab,' Breeding told me Friday.

And I am someone of very strong moral convictions, not someone that would get into something just for the press.Its not going to be a huge payout.

This is more of a statement to say, Look, if youre going to pay reparations, why not pay them to the letter of the law?'She also wants to make a couple of things clear.

The appeal of last Fridays House vs.

NCAA ruling, which will allow colleges to pay student-athletes directly starting July 1, wont stop the money going to current athletes.

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Can he raise the bar?Because whats on the table, to Breeding, isnt Title IX compliant.

CBSSports.com reported that distributions are expected to mirror the same formula as the back payments: 75% of future revenue will be shared with football players, 15% with mens basketball players, 5% with womens basketball players and the remaining 5% to all other sports.This settlement as a whole is a response to the commercialization of college sports, Ashlyn Hare, one of the attorneys representing Breeding and the other seven athletes listed in the appeal, told The Post.

All the (Power 4) schools have made a decision that theyre going to treat their athletes and their sports like big business.

And thats what they want to do; thats perfectly fine.

But theyre still subject to education-related laws like Title IX.Ashlyn Hare photographed at Hutchinson Black and Cook office in Boulder, Colorado on Thursday, June 9, 2022.

Ashlyn was a high jumper at Vanderbilt University and Oregon University and her experience as an NCAA athlete led her to law school and plans to become a Title IX lawyer when she graduates from the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law.

(Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)The Department of Education under former President Joe Biden had suggested, in anticipation of the settlement, that revenue-sharing would be subject to Title IX compliance.

That recommendation was rescinded in February when the Trump administration took over the department.To be compliant with Title IX, a university has to provide opportunities, financial aid and/or scholarships proportionate, by gender, to the campus population as a whole.In fall 2024, for example, CU reported an undergraduate female enrollment rate of 46.8%.

Which is a heck of a lot more than the 10%-ish of revenue sharing on the table.

As House currently stands, how is the ratio of payments consistent with the law? Or with the core academic mission of a university?I think its perfectly plausible that we get a court ruling that says Title IX is going to regulate these payments, Hare said.

(But) I can never predict what the Trump administration is going to do.This isnt the first Title IX rodeo for Hare or for her peers at Hutchinson Black and Cook, which specializes in federal gender equity law.

Theyve taken on some massive cases over the years, most notably the sexual assault case involving CU football roughly 20 years ago, as well as one filed against New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston when he was at Florida State.I would be ashamed to admit how many hours of sleep I got this week, Hare cracked.

Weve been extremely busy.Their opening brief for the appeal is due on Sept.

3.

When I asked how many more Title IX lawsuits were coming now that House is official, Hare let out an almost pensive chuckle.A lot, she replied.

I cant give out an exact number.

But its going to be a lot.After decades of winking, nodding, Teflon and kid gloves, the NCAAs definition of amateurism is toast.

The question is what emerges from the ashes.Some sort of unionization of student-athletes would open the door for collective bargaining.

With players, thats a chance to codify uniform standards for financial compensation, short-term and long-term health care, workplace standards, hours, et cetera.For schools, such bargaining might be the only way to get some roster control back when it comes to the transfer portal contracts to remain at an institution for X amount of seasons would be legally binding.

Free agency (via the portal) could require a certain amount of tenure first, the way it does in the pros.

Everything has to be on the table now.I think unionizing college sports would do a lot to alleviate the antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA, Hare said.

If you have a union, youre not subject to antitrust suits, at least (within) the realm of employee compensation.And athletic directors, administrators and coaches are still employees of a college not a sports and entertainment academy.Even with the Deion Sanders Effect, CU athletics still hasnt been entirely self-sufficient.

In the universitys most recent report to the state auditors office for the 23-24 fiscal year that ended last June 30, of the $146.6 million reported in athletics revenues, $27 million of that was categorized as coming from direct institutional support.

Another $1.6 million stemmed from student fees.At the same time, football ticket sales provided the single-biggest revenue line item on CUs 24 fiscal year $31.2 million for the fall of 2023.

No other Buffs sport reported more than $3 million in ticket revenue.

Among womens sports, only womens basketball reported more than $125,000.Amateurism is dead and gone, Hare said.

It would be great for athletes to have the ability to be paid by schools.

But its important to figure out how Title IX is going to factor into that.Look, Breeding understands the counterarguments, too.

That House, at its core, is a framework for economics, not societal gatekeeping.

She gets that football is the tide that has to lift all boats.

That most womens sports dont make money.

Why should they receive it?Thats a good question, Breeding said.

Why do we deserve to get paid equally? Because its the law.

It may not be fair, but if you want to make it fair, you need to change the law.Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denvers teams..

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