Sedona Prince’s college journey reaches her final year and she hopes to leave her mark on the court

Sedona Prince is entering his seventh and final year of college basketball. From her viral video during the 2021 NCAA tournament to her role in a landmark antitrust lawsuit that will help get money for college athletes, she’s already made her mark off the court.

If she can help TCU have a memorable season on the court, that will be a welcome bonus.

Prince, now 24, was one of the lead plaintiffs in a House lawsuit against the NCAA that led to a $2.8 billion NCAA settlement that recently received preliminary approval from a federal judge. When that is finally done, the deal will allow colleges to pay their athletes directly, possibly as early as next fall. It also includes millions in damages.

“This is a big win, something we’ve been trying to achieve for a long time,” Prince told The Associated Press. – A big step forward. There is still much to be done. It’s more than we could have asked for and a step in the right direction.”

The journey of the prince

It’s been a bumpy ride for Prince, whose career began in Texas in 2018 before heading to Oregon after breaking her leg while playing for USA Basketball.

She was with the Ducks in March 2021 when her social media video went viral for showing the difference between the women’s weight room in the NCAA Tournament bubble and the men’s, as well as the differences in food. The video embarrassed tournament organizers and prompted an apology — The New York Times called it “The Video That Changed the NCAA” a year later — and it spurred changes in women’s basketball.

“To make these changes is incredible, and I hope it continues to be that way, and not just because of the massive scandal and the player who exposed it on the national stage,” Prince told the AP afterward. “Things shouldn’t be decided this way.”

More than three years later, Prince can look back on the wave in the context of the changes it helped bring about.

“The video in the weight room was crazy, which I didn’t expect as a 20-year-old,” Prince said.

Claim

In June 2020, she was even younger when she, along with former Arizona State swimmer Grant House, became the lead plaintiffs in a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and the nation’s top five conferences. Their primary goal was to overturn rules prohibiting athletes from making money off the use of their names, images or likenesses—and a year later, the NCAA cleared the way for the NIL era in college athletics.

“I didn’t know that this lawsuit would benefit anyone financially,” she says now. “My main goal was to create change. When I wasn’t playing, I started building my social media platform and it started to take off, then I realized that I could be the person who could create that change, especially from the position I was in.”

“I was offered to become a plaintiff in the lawsuit,” she added. “I learned what NIL meant, what it was like, how it could help, dug deep into this particular conversation, and agreed to become a plaintiff.”

Prince was also a party to a federal lawsuit along with Duke football player Dewayne Carter and Stanford football player Nya Harrison that sought to bar the NCAA from enforcing any rules that prohibit compensation to athletes. The deal, announced in May, aims to address those concerns.

Prince said she sees a future where schools can pay athletes what they’re worth, and those days seem to be coming quickly.

“The NIL started as a completely different thing, now it’s turning into a salary for student-athletes,” she said. “Looking back, it’s completely different. How I made my ZERO money doing deals with brands, now student athletes will be able to get paid to play in school. It’s fun to wonder where it will be next year.”

The last season

Prince spent several years at Oregon before injuring his elbow and requiring reconstructive surgery. The 6-foot-7 center later dropped out and moved to Los Angeles, believing her college career was over.

Two weeks before the 2023 WNBA draft she attended, she saw Oregon assistant Mark Campbell take over as TCU’s head coach. She called him to see if she could play at a school a few hours north of where she played in high school in Liberty Hill, Texas.

After a pile of paperwork, she committed to TCU, only to break her finger 14 games into last season. After the operation, she is absent for almost two months. Prince averaged 19.7 points and 9.7 rebounds in 21 games.

“At the end of the season last year, I thought it was over, but the NCAA called us and said you have one more year,” she said.

Prince, who played in just 70 games in six years, said two redshirt seasons and an extra year of COVID left her with seven seasons of eligibility and that “all the pieces finally fell into place and I’m right where I need to be, and everything happens for a reason.”

TCU’s season opener is Tuesday at home against Houston Christian. Prince can’t wait, even though her legacy is already established, and she’s eagerly preparing for the next WNBA draft with her professional career hopes alive and well.

“Being the player I want to be on the court, I haven’t been able to show that yet,” she said. “I wasn’t able to impact the game with my basketball game because of injuries, but off the court I was able to speed up the game, close the gap inch by inch.”