NCAA set for massive change amid $2.8 billion settlement

The NCAA landscape experienced another seismic shift on Friday amid a groundbreaking court settlement.

July 1 will officially mark the first day that Division 1 schools will be able to pay their athletes directly. The massive change stems from Friday’s House v. NCAA resolution. Judge Claudia Wilken approved a $2.8 billion settlement to resolve three separate federal antitrust lawsuits consolidated in House v. NCAA. The suits all claimed that the NCAA was illegally limiting the earning potential of college athletes.

The settlement stipulates that the NCAA will pay $2.8 billion in back damages to former and existing college athletes from 2016 onwards.

The resolution also sets the stage for current D1 athletes to make money directly from their respective schools. Universities will have a $20.5 million salary cap to pay athletes this coming school year. The cap will gradually rise throughout the 10-year life span of the House v. NCAA settlement.

More details on the settlement itself can be found here.

The $20.5 million number will be shared between all sports. However, most power conference programs already plan to allocate 90% of the cap to their football and men’s basketball programs, per Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.

It’s been four years since a court ruling opened the door for college athletes to earn money through their name, image, and likeness (NIL). The change resulted in the NCAA’s top athletes earning unimaginable sums thanks to endorsement deals.

Just like when NIL deals first became reality, expect a lot of craziness in the first few years of the NCAA D1 salary cap era.