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If you’re even a casual observer of college sports, you’re probably aware of the House v. NCAA settlement, officially approved Friday, which sets the stage of a new era of paying college athletes.
The highlights are:
- $2.75 billion in back pay to Division I college athletes who played from 2016 to 2025. This is money meant as repayment to athletes who couldn’t legally collect on their name, image and likeness from their schools. Ex-college athletes Grant House and Sedona Price filed a complaint against the NCAA and five major conferences in 2020 that challenged existing rules preventing athletes from receiving compensation for the use of their NIL. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken allowed for class-action certification for damages and backdated the compensation to 2016, taking advantage of a four-year statute of limitations from the time a case is filed.
- Moving forward, colleges can spend up to $20.5 million per year, escalating most years by at least 4%, to directly pay athletes. While many star athletes have been paid on the side by NIL collectives for the past four years, this officially ends the era of amateurism. Most of the money will go to the two sports that generate the most revenue for schools: football and basketball.
