The NCAA has announced “a new era” in college sports, touting “unprecedented” benefits for student-athletes following the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s long-awaited approval of the $2.8 billion settlement in the House antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and the “Power 5” conferences – the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC that ends a bar on direct compensation to student-athletes.
Beginning July 1, 2025, institutions competing at the Division I level may provide direct compensation and benefits to student-athletes, subject to an initial cap of approximately $20.5 million and increasing annually based on revenue sharing across the Power 5 conferences. In addition:
- Scholarship limits will be replaced with sport-specific roster limits. Student-athletes rostered or recruited this past academic year have some protections for their roster spots for the length of their eligibility.
- Institutions have new reporting requirements. In the next month, institutions must submit a list of all student-athletes eligible for roster protection. Student-athletes must report all third-party name, image, and likeness (NIL) agreements valued over $600. After each academic year, each institution must report those student-athlete third-party NIL agreements as well as all NIL agreements and other benefits the institution provided directly to student-athletes and their families.
Rules and procedures for enforcement of these new terms are still developing. However, the NCAA will not be the enforcement body. The Power 5 conferences have established a new College Sports Commission for enforcement of the House settlement terms. Disputes over enforcement – such as student-athlete eligibility and institutional violations – are subject to mandatory expedited arbitration, before designated arbitrators, with binding resolutions within 45 days.
This April, in anticipation of the court accepting these terms, the NCAA’s Division I Board of Governors adopted changes that eliminated more than 150 rules from the Division I 2024/25 Manual. The NCAA will still enforce rules not impacted by the House settlement.
The House settlement provides clear parameters for student-athlete compensation in many ways, but questions still remain. Institutions should expect legal challenges on a number of related issues, including how Title IX will apply to student-athlete compensation, whether student-athletes are employees of their institutions, and limits on student-athlete eligibility, among others.
The Jackson Lewis Education & Collegiate Sports Group will continue to monitor developments in implementation, enforcement, and challenges to these new standards in collegiate sports. Please feel free to reach out to any member of the Education & Collegiate Sports Group with questions.