And that's what Maine is likely doing, too. No one knows what House is going to look like after all of these downstream legal challenges; the NCAA is trying to get some sort of Congressional exemption to labor laws and a salary cap; does Title IX even exist as a thing anymore is an open question....
If you are in an FBS conference you have to opt in. Even if you have no money to spend, you have to find some way to pay your football players. If you are in the Big East or Atlantic 10 you have to opt in to stay competitive in basketball. For everyone else, it's an open question on whether it is going to be necessary. Heck, do we even know if BC is going to spend any additional money on hockey? They are at the bottom of the ACC in basketball and football, and if Clemson and North Carolina and Louisville are going to spend $20.5M on basketball and football, can BC afford not to spend all $20.5M? Heck, BC might need to spend LESS on hockey.
No one knows anything concrete. What we do know is that Maine didn't wake up the day after the House settlement was signed with any extra money in its athletic department bank account. And I don't think a single one of us was saying "hey, Maine's spending a ton of discretionary money on extras" before. The Alfond money aside (which is targeted to facilities), this whole operation has been run on a shoestring for 30 years. If Maine says "we're opting in, we're adding 50 scholarships across all our sports, and we've got $15,000 to each athlete" where the heck is that money coming from? Is the state legislature going to free up an extra $3,000,000 or so to Maine athletics? Is the tuition bill going up for every student? Are we cutting sports?