Fair Share: College Athletes Have Thousands of Dollars Coming to Them in $2.8 Billion NCAA Settlement
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Thousands of College Athletes Can Now Submit Claims for Part of $2.8 Billion Settlement
The Proposed $2.8 Billion Settlement
The proposed $2.8 billion settlement stems from a landmark case involving allegations that many current and former athletes were wrongfully denied compensation for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).
New Rules and State Laws Allow Athletes to Earn Money
Historically, college athletes haven’t been allowed to receive compensation aside from scholarships and payment for limited expenses. That all changed in 2021, when new rules and state laws allowed athletes to earn money for commercial use of their image through brand deals and agreements with school-specific collectives funded by fans and alumni.
What Does the Settlement Cover?
This settlement, which resolves several lawsuits against the NCAA and major athletic conferences, could further upend the college sports landscape, and ultimately lead to colleges paying athletes directly.
Athletes Covered in the Settlement
Athletes who played from 2016 onward are covered in the settlement. The biggest payouts from the $2.8 billion-fund will likely go to football players, and the largest individual amount could be as high as $1.85 million.
Breaking Down Who Gets Paid from the Settlement
There are three key groups of athletes defined in the agreement: Power Five men’s football and basketball players, Power Five women’s basketball players, and all other Division I athletes. According to estimates, the average payouts will be $135,000 for men’s football and basketball players and $35,000 for women’s basketball players, with other athletes eligible for smaller payouts ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars, or in some cases, even less.
Why Are Certain Sports Favored?
Sports outside of basketball and football add “little or no value to the conferences’ media contracts,” and for that reason, other athletes are not entitled to a share of the largest portion of the settlement connected to broadcast media, which the Power 5 basketball and football players were allegedly wrongfully denied.
What is the Timeline for Athletes to Get Paid?
Individual athletes won’t know the amount they’re eligible to receive from the settlement until at least December, according to attorney Luke Fedlam, partner and head of sports law at Porter Wright in Columbus, Ohio. Any payments would be paid out annually over a period of up to 10 years.
What Else Does the Settlement Do?
The $2.8 billion pot of money is intended to pay retroactively for alleged damages from missing out on television and marketing rights. But a separate – and potentially more significant – part of the settlement creates a roadmap for the future of compensation in college sports through revenue sharing.
