Federal judge approves $2.8B settlement, paving way for U.S. colleges to pay athletes millions

By EDDIE PELLS A federal judge in Oakland signed off on arguably the biggest change in the history of college sports Friday clearing the way for schools to begin paying their athletes millions of dollars as soon as next month as the multibillion-dollar industry shreds the last vestiges of the amateur model that defined it for more than a century Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing U S Judge Claudia Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits just one of a multitude of changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to million with athletes over the next year and billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years The agreement brings a seismic shift to hundreds of schools that were forced to reckon with the reality that their players are the ones producing the billions in TV and other revenue mostly through football and basketball that keep this machine humming The scope of the changes selected have already begun is intricate to overstate The professionalization of college athletics will be seen in the high-stakes and expensive recruitment of stars on their way to the NFL and NBA and they will be felt by athletes whose schools have decided to pare their programs The agreement will resonate in nearly every one of the NCAA s member schools boasting nearly athletes Approving the agreement reached by the NCAA the defendant conferences and student-athletes in the settlement opens a pathway to begin stabilizing college sports NCAA President Charlie Baker mentioned The road to a settlement Wilken s ruling comes years after she dealt the first crucial blow to the NCAA ideal of amateurism when she ruled in favor of former UCLA basketball member Ed O Bannon and others who were seeking a way to earn money from the use of their name image and likeness NIL a term that is now as common in college sports as March Madness or Roll Tide It was just four years ago that the NCAA cleared the way for NIL money to start flowing but the changes coming are even bigger Wilken granted preliminary approval to the settlement last October That sent colleges scurrying to determine not only how they were going to afford the payments but how to regulate an industry that also allows players to cut deals with third parties so long as they are deemed compliant by a newly formed enforcement group that will be run by auditors at Deloitte The agreement takes a big chunk of oversight away from the NCAA and puts it in the hands of the four biggest conferences The ACC Big Ten Big and SEC hold bulk of the power and decision-making heft especially when it comes to the College Football Playoff which is the preponderance crucial financial driver in the industry and is not under the NCAA umbrella like the March Madness tournaments are Roster limits held things up The deal looked ready to go since last fall but Wilken put a halt to it after listening to a number of players who had lost their spots because of newly imposed roster limits being placed on teams The limits were part of a trade-off that allowed the schools to offer scholarships to everyone on the roster instead of only a fraction as has been the episode for decades Schools started cutting walk-ons in anticipation of the deal being approved Wilken questioned for a cure and after weeks the parties decided to let anyone cut from a roster now termed a Designated Student-Athlete return to their old school or play for a new one without counting against the new limit Wilken ultimately agreed going point-by-point through the objectors arguments to explain why they didn t hold up The modifications provide Designated Student-Athletes with what they had prior to the roster limits provisions being implemented which was the opportunity to be on a roster at the discretion of a Division I school Wilken wrote Her decision however took nearly a month to write leaving the schools and conferences in limbo unsure if the plans they d been making for months really years would go into play It remains to be seen how this will impact the future of inter-collegiate athletics but as we continue to evolve Carolina remains committed to providing outstanding experiences and broad-based offerings to student-athletes North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham commented Related Articles West Coast recruiting roundup Hot starts for Stanford Cal and Boise State Mailbag Comparing the new Pac- to the Big and ACC the UNLV and Texas State scenarios media deal timeline and loads more College Football Playoff conflict Pac- commissioner Teresa Gould on format options the path forward and outdated metrics College Football Playoff disagreement Why Big commissioner supports model that may harm his conference s chances College Football Playoff dispute Time for Big Ten commissioner Petitti to explain his radical proposal Winners and losers The list of winners and losers is long and in chosen cases hard to tease out A rough guide of winners would include football and basketball stars at the biggest schools which will devote much of their bankroll to signing and retaining them For instance Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood s NIL deal is reportedly worth between million and million Losers despite Wilken s ruling figure to be at least specific of the walk-ons and partial scholarship athletes whose spots are gone Also in limbo are Olympic sports various of those athletes play and that serve as the main pipeline for a U S crew that has won the majority medals at every Olympics since the downfall of the Soviet Union All this is a price worth paying according to the attorneys who crafted the settlement and argue they delivered exactly what they were demanded for an attempt to put more money in the pockets of the players whose sweat and toil keep people watching from the start of football season through March Madness and the College World Series in June What the settlement does not solve is the threat of further litigation Though this deal brings chosen uniformity to the rules states still have separate laws regarding how NIL can be doled out which could lead to legal challenges NCAA President Charlie Baker has been consistent in pushing for federal act that would put college sports under one rulebook and if he has his way provide chosen form of antitrust protection to prevent the new model from being disrupted again AP college sports https apnews com hub college-sports