Good morning! Trump administration fires another woman from top military role, Mira Murati adds advisors to new venture, and women’s college basketball closes out its last season before a major change.
– Off the court. After UConn won the NCAA women’s college basketball championship on Sunday, coach Geno Auriemma weighed in on a huge change barreling toward the sport and the entire NCAA. Colleges are expected to soon be able to pay players—and that ability “will ruin parity,” Auriemma said on Sunday.
He was referring to parity in tournaments; when one basketball program pays more than the other, on-court advantage goes beyond traditional powerhouses like UConn. “[When] it’s money-driven, it’s going to be, who is going to become the Dodgers and Yankees?” the coach said.
On Monday, Judge Claudia Wilken sat down to approve a settlement that will decide how those questions are answered. House v. NCAA is a landmark settlement of three different antitrust cases in college sports. The settlement would allow schools to pay athletes $20.5 million each in revenue-sharing next year, and $2.8 billion would go toward back pay for athletes who played before name, image, likeness rules were reformed, which allowed students to earn money from their brands without losing NCAA status.
Wilken didn’t approve the settlement on Monday; she said she’s seeking to resolve some remaining issues before signing off. Some athletes testified against the agreement on Monday; NIL superstar Livvy Dunne said the formula it uses to calculate NIL value placed hers too low. Smaller schools object that it will leave them behind and limit the development of athletes for less prominent, non-revenue generating but sometimes Olympic sports.
Earlier this year, I chatted with Sedona Prince, a lead plaintiff on the case. She is in favor of athletes being paid directly by their universities, in addition to NIL earnings. “It’s two different things, right?” she says. The 24-year-old suffered serious injuries during her college career at Texas Christian University; her time in college basketball just ended with a loss in the Elite Eight. The experience caused her to rethink how college sports operate. “My mom had been talking to other parents of kids who had been going through these injuries and had been paying their own medical bills,” she says. “It just outraged us as a family.” She wanted to sue her school, and ended up joining this lawsuit. She sat through a “brutal” seven-hour deposition and her lawyers have been logged into her social media accounts for years, she says, to view any messages related to college earnings. She gained more attention, too, when she posted a video about the drastic disparity between the men’s and women’s weight rooms during the 2021 NCAA tournament, igniting a debate about gender equity in college sports.
While the debate around the House settlement comes down to a few highly impactful details—exactly how much athletes should be paid, what the end of amateurism will mean across the entire NCAA—Prince stands firm on her main point. “We’re adults,” she says. “There are 18- to 22-year-olds working 9-to-5s.” She’s excited the settlement could give a boost to athletes who didn’t get to benefit from the NIL era. “We’re not done,” she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Marching orders. U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield was fired, as the Trump administration continues to lay off women and people of color in top military positions. She was the only woman on NATO’s military committee and was fired by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who has said that women should not serve in combat roles. Axios
- Adding advisors. Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati added two new advisors to her new venture Thinking Machines Lab, both from OpenAI—the company’s chief research officer Bob McGrew and a former researcher for the company, Alec Radford. Business Insider
- Smile! You’re on camera. Autonomous vehicle company Waymo may soon be using data from its cars—like video from interior cameras associated with riders’ identities—to train AI models. A spokesperson for the company, which is co-led by Tekedra Mawakana, said that users will be able to opt out of this data collection. TechCrunch
- Hershey history. It doesn’t end with Barbie: A Hershey movie is in the works, telling the story of the chocolate company and the philanthropic efforts of Milton and Kitty Hershey. Hershey president and CEO Michele Buck said, “This movie will reveal how Milton and Kitty built something far greater than a chocolate company.” In other Hershey news, the company agreed to acquire popcorn brand LesserEvil for around $750 million. Variety
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Puma appointed Tara McRae as president of Puma North America. Most recently, she was the company’s SVP of marketing and brand strategy.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs appointed Leslie Vinjamuri as president and CEO. She was previously director of the U.S. and the Americas program at Chatham House.
Think Shift, a marketing agency for agriculture brands, named Carly Sabourin chief client officer and Nicole Baudry director of business development. Most recently, Sabourin was the agency’s EVP of sales and marketing. Baudry was director of client development.
Infranity, an infrastructure investment-focused asset management company, named Caroline Kragerud head of distribution and investor relations. Previously, she was partner and co-head of investor relations and fundraising at Omnes Capital.
Dr. Phil’s Merit TV, a network founded by TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, named Deb Gerry VP of ad sales and sponsor solutions. Gerry previously served as SVP of ad sales at CBS-Paramount.
ON MY RADAR
Duchess Meghan’s new podcast focuses on startup founder life at a moment of market turbulence Fortune
Women’s protein appetite shakes up $100 billion nutrition market Bloomberg
Tracy Chapman wants to speak for herself New York Times
PARTING WORDS
“The whole conversation is just about my teeth, and it makes me a bit sad because I'm not getting to talk about my work.”
— The White Lotus actor Aimee Lou Wood
