Insuring the Game:
How Colleges Are Using Policies to Protect Athlete Payouts
For the first time in 119 years, colleges are legally paying athletes, and insurers are already circling the field. Thanks to the NCAA’s antitrust settlement, schools can now dish out up to $20 million annually to their players. And where billions of dollars flow, you can bet the insurance industry shows up with a playbook of its own.
After decades of hiding behind the “no-pay” wall, the NCAA finally broke. Athletes aren’t just making money off sponsorships and donor collectives anymore. Now, schools themselves are cutting the checks. But before you think this is some clean win for student-athletes, remember: risk breeds insurance, and insurance breeds opportunity for profit.
Enter companies like Players Health, a Minneapolis-based insurer already peddling “critical injury” policies. If an athlete gets hurt and misses 40% of a season, the school’s payout is covered. Sounds fair, until you realize the fine print decides what counts, what doesn’t, and who really benefits. Spoiler: it isn’t always the kid limping off the field.
They’re also insuring against transfers. With the NCAA transfer portal turning college sports into a revolving door, schools can now insure themselves if a player takes the upfront cash and bolts before ever suiting up. Once again, insurers pocket premiums while players get treated like numbers in a database.
Even performance milestones, making all-conference, winning the Heisman, are being gamified into “fair market value” bonus policies. It’s Wall Street thinking, dropped straight onto the 50-yard line.
Let’s be clear: athletes deserve to be paid. They’ve been exploited for more than a century. But look carefully at who steps in the moment money changes hands. Schools want protection. Insurers want premiums. And the same system that dragged its feet on paying athletes for generations is already finding ways to make sure the real winners are the ones writing the policies.
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