The NCAA’s new settlement, a topic of significant importance, has been making waves across the internet. The agreement allowing schools to pay their athletes is a groundbreaking development. Over the next 10 years, the NCAA is mandated to pay over$2.7 billion in damages to past and current athletes. This move raises crucial questions about its wisdom.

This is the first time college sports has witnessed such a thing as paying a student to play. Along with the NCAA and the Power Five conferences, law firm Hagens Berman and Winston & Strawn LLP announced that it’s a “landmark antitrust class-action settlement” that will give “billion of dollars in backpay damages and tens of billions of dollars in future revenue-sharing to college athletes.” This settlement aims to allow each school to share up to around $20 million per year with athletes. But how does this impact college athletes without NIL valuations?

How NCAA’s settlement could impact some college students

According to the firm’s statement to ESPN, the number of former and current athletes who stand to benefit from the $2.7 billion in damages is over 10,000. However, a “series of formulas” will be used to distribute the money to address the potential challenges that could arise for players without NIL valuations. This aspect of the settlement raises important questions about its possible impact on college students. 

NIL and the transfer portal are the best free assets in college football. So athletic directors voiced their wishes on ESPN, saying they’re “hopeful the settlement lays the groundwork for a system where success on the field is less dependent on which schools can spend the most money.“ As Illinois AD and NCAA’s Division I Council chairman Josh Whitman said, “I think we have a chance right now to really reshape the model in the most meaningful way of any of our lifetimes, and maybe the most meaningful way there has ever been.“ But how is it going to affect the college sports scene?

The impact of NCAA’s new settlement on college sports

The NCAA is considering removing the cap on guaranteed scholarships across sports. But could there be a possible change in roster size? For instance, a football team has 120 players with 85 limited scholarships. This scenario could potentially turn into 100 players with scholarships in the future. 

As for the NIL department, the NCAA is hopeful that the new settlement will boost NIL guardrails, which is why some schools are already hiring specific staffers to deal with NIL. But all in all, this settlement will change college sports as the relationship between players and schools transforms with direct payment for participation.