When U. S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken ruled in the landmark Alston vs. NCAA case on college athletes’ rights last week, she shut the lid on the largest can of worms, unlimited direct cash payments and free agency.

But she might have opened another one.

One that could, potentially, allow the more well-heeled Power Five Conference schools to widen the competitive gap over the so-called mid and low majors, such as the University of Hawaii.

In her 104-page ruling, which gives the parties 90 days to file an appeal, the NCAA was ordered to change its rules by Feb. 2020 and provide schools the option to offer benefits beyond the traditional “full ride” as long as they constitute “non-cash education-related benefits and academic rewards.”

The devil here is in the definition and implementation.

Could, for example, a school offer subsidized trips abroad during the summer for players studying, say French or Samoan? Could, a conference commissioner wonders, schools provide cars for players who live a significant distance from campus?

Moreover, if an athlete qualifies for a Dean’s List or some other academic achievement, can there be a cash-equivalent award?

“It is possible that larger conferences could rely on Judge Wilken’s ruling (assuming the ruling is upheld on appeal to the Ninth Circuit) to create further distance from smaller conferences,” said Michael McCann, Director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire, in an email.

McCann said, “This is particularly the case if ‘related to education’ expenses and benefits — the key phrase identified by Judge Wilken — proves to be far-reaching in effect. We’ll see.”

Traditionally scholarship aid had been limited to tuition, room, board, books and fees until 2015 when the Power Five schools succeeded in pushing through legislation permitting “cost of attendance” benefits such as computers, travel home, etc.

That has allowed schools with the financial wherewith all to provide as much as $7,000 in cost of attendance subsidies.

For schools in the Power Five conference that rake in TV money to the tune of $20 million-$30 million each per year, that was no problem.

Neither was financing all-day restaurant-worthy meals, smoothie bars and the like. They can underwrite travel for parents to accompany their kids on recruiting visits and subsidize insurance for draft-probable players.

But for schools, such as UH, which are scrambling to try to balance budgets, even $1,500 per scholarship athlete can be a stretch.

Judge Wilkens’ ruling in a case brought by a group of athletes who had sued the NCAA and the major conferences contending they unfairly limited compensation for football and basketball players, also opens the way for conferences to come up with their own thresholds for scholarships and related benefits, if they can be deemed relevant to education.

That would seem to provide a lot of latitude for, say, the Southeastern Conference or Big Ten, who paid their schools an average of $40.9 million and $34.8 million each, that the Mountain West, at less than $5 million, can’t come close to matching.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.