Just one day after Texas passed a bill letting athletes over 17 sign contracts with schools for NIL, the long-running House v. NCAA lawsuit for $2.8 billion got its final stamp from U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken. This historic decision now clears the way for universities to pay athletes directly, marking a tidal shift in college sports. It’s a reckoning. Paul Finebaum isn’t mincing words, and if you tuned into ESPN’s SportsCenter with Jay Harris on June 7, you saw the longtime college football critic go nuclear. The man who’s spent decades propping up the pageantry of Saturdays just called time of death on the NCAA.

“I couldn’t help but think back about 10 years ago, when Mark Emmert, then the President of the NCAA, essentially said college athletes will be paid over my dead body. He’s still alive, but the NCAA is dead,” Paul Finebaum laid it out for television.

This wasn’t a metaphor. This was a eulogy.  Finebaum tore into what he sees as a broken system (NCAA), gasping for life. “It (NCAA) may still be in existence. We’re still having tournaments, such as the Women’s World Series and the Men’s Baseball Tournament, but the NCAA, as we know it, is gone. They literally have no jurisdiction whatsoever, other than to be tournament directors.” The new college commission, led by MLB executive Bryan Seeley and Co., will oversee things, and the NCAA will just play the role of matchmaking.

The new NIL revenue-sharing plan isn’t the start of balance—it’s a death sentence for the old guard. Instead of leveling the playing field, he fears it’ll create an even bigger gap. “This was supposed to level the playing field. Everybody pays the same into the kitty and then divides it up, but it will do anything. The big will get bigger, and the small schools will simply slip away.” 

With schools like Alabama and Ohio State about to divvy up $20.5 million per year in NIL money, Finebaum warned that the rich are about to get filthy rich. And the Cinderella stories? Donezo. “It will look a little bit like the NCAA basketball tournament this year… the Butlers of the past and so many incredible stories, the Valpos—they’re going to be gone,” he said. The fear? That college sports becomes a Netflix reboot with the same big-budget stars every season.

And it doesn’t stop at basketball. Women’s sports—especially surging ones like softball—could become collateral damage. Finebaum gave a shoutout to a Texas Tech ace pulling in a million dollars but questioned how many more of those stories we’ll see. “If you’re one of these Ohio States or Alabamas, and you’re dividing up $20.5 million, you know where most of it’s going—it’s going to football. That’s really a major casualty.”

Finebaum isn’t just worried about sports—it’s about fans too. “At some point, fans are going to start tuning out,” he warned. “There’s such an existential threat to what we grew up loving… It’s not going to be the same anymore.”

House v. NCAA settlement: $2.8 billion

Judge Wilken’s landmark decision is now law, and the fuse has already been lit. With July 1 as the day schools are expected to start paying athletes directly, college sports just hit fast-forward on its biggest overhaul ever. The NCAA will cough up nearly $2.8 billion in back pay over 10 years to athletes who played from 2016 to now. Meanwhile, starting in 2025-26, schools can hand out up to $20.5 million annually to their current rosters, on top of scholarships.

It’s no longer about shady NIL collectives or under-the-table deals. This money is real, regulated, and school-sanctioned. Deloitte is stepping in to manage the new “NIL Go” clearinghouse, vetting any deal over $600 to avoid booster chaos. For once, the guardrails are being used to protect the athletes—not trap them.

Former Oregon basketball player Sedona Prince, one of the faces of the lawsuit, put it plainly: “It’s historic… It seemed like this crazy, outlandish idea… but it’s going to change millions of lives for the better.”

This is restitution and revolution rolled into one. Athletes who made millions for universities without touching a dime now get to share the pie. Football and men’s basketball programs will be the big spenders, sure—but schools are going to have to get creative with how they stretch the cap. West Virginia’s AD Wren Baker said he’s confident WVU will hit the cap every year. But for programs that fall short? They’re not just behind—they’re buried.

Football rosters are also slimming down. Starting in 2026, the NCAA is capping teams at 105 players—but giving flexibility to offer all of them scholarships. A nod to competitive balance, but also a brutal cut for walk-ons and bubble players. The death of amateurism isn’t a theory anymore. It’s now the rulebook.