Livvy Dunne Blasts Proposed House vs. NCAA Settlement, NIL Damages

Livvy Dunne is leading the charge against the proposed House vs. NCAA settlement. In a Monday hearing, the LSU Tigers gymnast objected to the settlement terms.

Dunne is an NCAA Division I athlete, and her boyfriend Paul Skenes is a starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Dunne has cultivated a significant social media presence, with 5.3 million Instagram followers. 

That tremendous online following played a significant part in Dunne's testimony before a federal court in the Northern District of California. The 22-year-old told the court, "This settlement doesn't come close to recognizing the value I lost."

Although the NCAA has agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion in damages under the proposed settlement, Dunne believes the formula determining how much each athlete would be due is flawed.  

"I've shattered expectations and consistently surpassed industry NIL projections. Yet, every year, those projections have underestimated my actual earnings," Dunne testified. "That's not just a personal detail. It's a warning sign. When a settlement uses flawed data to cap damages, it risks undervaluing the very athletes it claims to support."

With over 8 million TikTok followers, Dunne claimed that the figures submitted by LSU detailing her earnings for her name, image, and likeness (NIL) during her time with the Tigers were incorrect. To correct those numbers, Dunne said that she has to opt-in to the House class-action suit, despite being uncertain whether she wanted to.

Dunne, who introduced herself as an athlete and a businesswoman, said, "NIL isn't just about income. It's about fairness, independence, and the freedom to create a future beyond sports."

Even before college, the New Jersey native had developed her brand, creating a substantial online following for her standout club gymnastics showings. Based on that starting point, Dunne said, "had NIL rules not restricted me, my value would have started higher, scaled faster, and grown even more."

After boasting that she had beaten industry projections for her earnings every year she was eligible for payments, Dunne claimed, "The settlement uses old logic to calculate modern value. It takes a narrow snapshot of a still maturing market and freezes it, ignoring the trajectory we were on and the deals we lost in the future."

To end her testimony, Dunne made her request to Judge Claudia Wilken clear: "I ask the settlement not be approved as it stands, not just for me, but for every athlete whose NIL value was real, but invisible. We deserve more than an estimate. We deserve to be heard, to be seen, and to be compensated for the value we created - not just the value the system was willing to measure."

If Wilken approves the House settlement following Monday's final approval hearing, the Wisconsin Badgers are expected to opt-in to its terms. Opting in would allow UW to share athletic department revenue directly with athletes, implement new roster limits, and affect other changes to NCAA governance.