What UM's Decision On House Settlement Means For Student Athletes

The ever-changing college athletics landscape is changing here at home at the University of Montana once again.

SWX Sports Director Shaun Rainey first reported back on June 19th that UM would opt OUT of the House Settlement.

Rainey's reporting was accurate, as it came straight from UM Athletic Director Kent Haslam.

But, as I've already said, things change, and now, UM is opting IN to the House Settlement.

That means, among a lot of things, that UM will be able to pay its student athletes directly.

"And when the house settlement came out," began Montana Deputy Director of Athletics Greg Sundberg. "It made it really clear: A lot of internal work to be done but it made it really clear that there were no negatives [on opting in], there were no positives, necessarily, on waiting."

The biggest hold-up for UM, initially, was limiting roster sizes. Some Grizzly sports teams would have been negatively impacted by roster limits, but Sundberg says they were able to avoid those limitations.

"The big one that helped Grizzly Athletics was roster management," explained Sundberg. "That kind of went through the process and not necessarily having to [limit roster sizes]."

Griz Soccer would have been one of the teams affected by roster limits. Credit: University of Montana Athletics

Sundberg says the biggest win is bringing the NIL efforts in-house.

"Instead of having this revenue share, and what we all know as the collective, to sit outside, it can come inside now."

Sundberg says there are still efforts to be made to get the NIL collective, known as Good Ol' Grizzlies, up and running under UM leadership.

Listen to my full conversation with Greg Sundberg above.