EXCLUSIVE: ORU AD Tim Johnson on new NCAA Settlement, backpay and more

News On 6's Ravin Ray sat down with Oral Roberts Athletic Director, Tim Johnson, to talk about the new facilities across campus for student athletes and the new NCAA Settlement that passed recently for universities the opportunities to pay their players.

Effects From NCAA Settlement

A multibillion-dollar announcement earlier in June marked a new era in college sports, as schools can now begin paying athletes directly. ORU AD Tim Johnson says it can help the school with the share, since they don't have football to take a massive part of the money.

"We've been able to do name, image and likeness. So, this thing has been changing on such a rapid pace, but we've kind of seen it coming. So you can prepare a little bit. But now with the house settlement being approved, you know, it's here it is, right? It starts July 1st. And, you've seen a lot of athletic departments preparing for that, and we're no different. But again, it's a new landscape, right? And when you're talking about being able to potentially share up to $20.5 million, you know, that's a landscape changing, earthquake moving type of thing for an industry. And so that's what everybody's going through right now."

"Football's a massive entity that eats thousand-dollar bills by the minute. So not having that has allowed us to prepare a little bit to, to compete in the sports that have been predominantly successful."

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Backpay Concerns Regarding It

"So I think the back pay is a little complicated. And that's and here's why I say that one. It kind of depends on where you are. So me, I'm the athletic director at Oral Roberts. We've never had football. Right. So it doesn't necessarily sound fair for Oral Roberts to lose money, or as part of its NCAA distribution, to go back to pay some football players when we've never even had football."

Facilities Drawing Impact For Program

Oral Roberts University and the Oral Roberts Athletic Department cut the ribbon on the brand new Mike Carter Athletic Center on April 19, 2023.

At almost 50,000-square-foot feet, the new MCAC houses basketball practice courts, administrative and coaches offices, and a 10,000-square-foot indoor sports performance area.

The new three-story athletic center features two NCAA regulation courts for men's and women's basketball, an expansive sports performance space, a stadium-style meeting room along with 30 administrative and coaches' offices. This $15 million center is named in honor of ORU Athletic Director Emeritus Mike Carter, who now serves as university's Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations.

"I had some NBA guys come in. They said, man, this is better than what half the NBA has for a practice facility. So man, the building came out great. " said Tim Johnson "The facilities are almost like an expectation now. And so when people come in and they're blown away by facilities, it really puts you kind of on an upper echelon and ahead of the curve when it comes to trying to get some of those people. When you show them how important it is and the commitment from the university."

Johnson also tells News On 6 there's more to come for the growth of the athletic advancements, like a brand-new sports medicine center.

"Well, that's going to be the next big one. That's the next thing right now."

Johnson added, "We're going to put in, phase two. We're going to do turf on the baseball field, and we hope to do turf for the soccer field. So those are pretty big. You know, it's a multi-million dollar project in and of itself. We're finishing up the pitching lab, which is going to be an incredible facility for baseball. Right now we're going to do on field suites for baseball. The sports medicine facility will be right here in the south lobby of the Navy Center. So that's another 10,000 square foot, multimillion dollar project that we have going on. That's going to be pretty incredible for our student athletes. So again, it's just constantly what's next and how can we give these kids the best they can ever imagine."