College athletics is undergoing a transformation unlike anything we’ve seen in generations. With recent court decisions, student-athletes can now be compensated directly for the value they help generate — and those payments are rapidly reshaping recruiting, retention and competitiveness across Division I.
For Hawaiʻi, with just one Division I program and no professional sports teams, this shift presents a stark choice: adapt, or fall behind.
During a November briefing to the House and Senate Higher Education Committees, University of Hawaiʻi leadership underscored this reality. The university plans to request $5 million from the Legislature to establish a name, image, and likeness fund that would allow UH to compensate student-athletes using a formula tied to outside revenue streams, such as television and media contracts. UH leadership has also indicated this request would be paired with accountability measures and ongoing evaluation, not treated as an open-ended entitlement…