That college athletes can be paid has become common knowledge and widely reported.  What has escaped careful analysis is the May settlement by the NCAA of three antitrust law suits claiming damages for prior failure to compensate college athletes.

First, the lawsuit did not relate to nonpayment for playing. It related to: compensating college athletes when their name, image and likeness (in the trade, “NIL”) was used for commercial gain prior to 2021 (when NCAA first granted permission for such payments); and, income paid to NCAA for deals with TV markets (which practice also prevented athletes from profiting on their true market value).

I omit here the likely reasoning behind NCAA’s decision to pay about $2.8 Billion (yes, BILLION) to settle cases brought under an 1890 Federal statute passed to break the 19th century Trusts over a century ago, a time when the NCAA and the idea that money could be made from college athletic contests was many decades in the future.

I note that the Federal court has yet to agree that such payment will be adequate in amount, nor as to the other terms of the settlement.

Payment will be effected by the NCAA in large measure, from its cash reserves and insurance payments (did you think the NCAA was a charitable institution?), while major schools each may be hit with as much as $30Million per year for the next ten years, which may well distort present athletic programs (and reduce direct scholarships or rosters sizes of major programs).  Feel free to think about your donation to your alma mater if it has a big-time athletic program, although it may be that your school will actually need your donation even more in the future….

It is unclear how proceeds will be split among athletes historically, how current payments will be made for future events, the split between male and female athletic programs– so no doubt more (confusing) developments will appear.  Newspaper reportage could be confused; not sure sports writers are best suited for this kind of stuff.  Forgive this shameless plug for my law firm, which  follows this matter closely, and which has a fuller report on the foregoing available now; http://www.duanemorris.com and go to “alerts.”