Universities say college ball has gotten a lot more complicated since they've been recruiting players with big figure contracts.

These payouts have only been allowed within the past year, since a college athlete class action lawsuit transformed the game.

As our June LaFleur reports, athletic departments are wavering between playing the money game and calling for reform.

A lot of money revolves around Kentucky football and basketball, but the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville athletics departments have reported recent deficits of tens of millions of dollars.

That's in part due to the brand new cost of paying players.

The risk you run is that if you don't play the game right now, you fall to irrelevancy a whole lot quicker than if you do try to play the game for as long as you can.

And resource it at the highest level as you can.

If we don't play the game right now.

Louisville football doesn't win in Louisville, basketball doesn't win, and the Louisville city suffers because of that.

Athletic departments can now pay up to $20.5 million a year to athletes across all sports, due to last summer's settlement between college athletes and the NCAA.

So overnight, we had to find $20 million or so, and at that point you know, we already are trying to claw our way to meet our $140 million budget.

So then all of a sudden, where does this extra $20 million come from?

It's what it has done, is created a new floor.

And it is not the ceiling.

It is now the expectation.

Now the expectation is you fund rev share fully and then it's the nil dollars that really go and sweeten the pot.

And Nil being the unlimited dollars athletes can make from corporate sponsors using their name, image or likeness.

It's all made college sports unsustainable, says Yuval.

The university's president, athletic director and a trustee wrote a lengthy rebuke of the current system.

They called for a ceiling on individual athlete compensation and for Congress to intervene in a number of ways.

UK is arguably buying into the system more than anyone.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports U-K spent $22 million on this year's men's basketball team, likely the most of any college.

UK has also moved its athletics department into an LLC, so it can be run more like a business.

Not everyone is on board.

Bellarmine University, the largest private Catholic college in Louisville, does not pay its players.

Not opting in is what is currently best for Bellarmine and Bellarmine student athletes.

All Kentucky public universities, except Kentucky State University, did sign on to last year's settlement to receive NCAA funds and pay players.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm John Lefler.

Thank you Jim.

President Donald Trump issued a college sports executive order just days ago.

Among other things, it limits the number of times a student can transfer schools and still compete.