Gavin McKenna is a 17-year-old from Whitehorse, a city about the size of Hazleton in Canada’s Yukon Territory situated so far north, residents would require a 29-hour drive south just to reach Seattle.

But as far as teenage hockey players go worldwide, he’s just about the best. Playing junior hockey for the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers in Alberta — another 29-hour drive from home — the slick-skating forward scored 41 goals and led the WHL with 88 assists in just 56 games last season.

He’s so gifted, nobody in the sport will be surprised if he’s selected No. 1 overall once he’s eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft. Until then, he has one season to cement his draft stock, and there is talk around that industry that McKenna may be leaning toward doing that in the collegiate ranks a whopping 3,700 miles away from home.

At, of all places, Penn State.

Plans change in a heartbeat in the world of college athletics recruiting. But if that does happen, it’s not likely McKenna would venture all this way solely because he heard great things about the Berkey Creamery. It would be because universities like Penn State can now compensate potential stars like him handsomely to be difference-makers in their athletic programs.

A long-awaited settlement with the House of Representatives signed over the weekend will, for the first time, allow athletic departments to pay student-athletes starting July 1. Essentially, the agreement gives schools a $20.5 million salary cap to divvy up amongst their entire crop of athletes.

That number is likely to skyrocket as years pass, too.

Rarely has a settlement bestowed on an entity both necessary change on moral and functional grounds, and such potential for absolute chaos when it comes to implementing its mission.

After all, for top student-athletes who have been cash cows for athletic programs with little to no legal recourse to capitalize on their success for generations, the old system was unfair. After all, what kind of income could the likes of Scranton’s Gerry McNamara pull in during his years at Syracuse in the early 2000s, or Wilkes-Barre’s Raghib Ismail at Notre Dame in the late 1980s, when they were both among the most marketable stars in their sports?

Massive jersey sales and ticket revenue they drove went directly into the schools’ pockets. Now college athletes can get much closer to their true value from a marketing perspective.

At the same time, the stated mission of college-sponsored athletics — to enhance the educational experience and opportunities for student-athletes — does take a hit, as the tie between education and athletics naturally frays.

Sure, a player of McKenna’s ilk can play a year of college hockey, likely for a pretty good salary, and he may be the difference for a hockey program looking to win a championship. But with just one year until he can make millions heading to the professional ranks, the idea he’d possibly leave the school of his choosing with a four-year degree is somewhat delusional.

Sports have always been a big business for colleges, and now they can celebrate that fact. Certainly, the largest payouts out of that salary pool will go to athletes in the sports that make schools the most money: Football and men’s basketball. That’s very likely to take a bite out of opportunities available in Olympic sports like track and field, and there are plenty of questions about whether athletes in the bigger women’s sports will be compensated at most schools.

All sports provide students educational experiences and opportunities, to learn to become leaders, manage their time, become better teammates. But not all of them make money, and it’s not a stretch to assume those programs that don’t will be expendable as schools justify which athletes are most worthy of what really is a business investment.

The educational value of athletics is in opportunities. Not wins or championship trophies. And certainly not the money they bring in that largely funds athletics only, and not the educational experience of the general student population. Penn State shuttering seven commonwealth campuses while its athletic department funds an estimated $700 million renovation of Beaver Stadium is evidence enough of that.

It’s more fair than ever to question whether our nation’s largest universities are educational institutions offering athletics, or big businesses that know it’s more lucrative to be athletic factories.