WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The NCAA is to pay $2.77 Billion in damages over 10 years for NIL compensation that Division I athletes were not able to receive because of NCAA bylaws, including ‘broadcast NIL’ that Power 5 college football and Power 5 college men’s/women’s basketball players were prohibited from earning. These damages would be distributed to members of three separate classes: (1) Power Conference football and men’s basketball players who received full athletic scholarships and who competed between June 15, 2016 and November 4, 2023, (2) Power Conference women’s basketball players who received full athletic scholarships and who competed between June 15, 2016 and November 4, 2023, and (3) all current and former Division I college athletes who competed on a team prior to July 1, 2021 and received NIL compensation between July 1, 2021 and November 4, 2023.

This settlement also resolves two other pending antitrust cases brought against the NCAA and the Power 5 conferences: Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA. You can read more about those here.

The settlement will also include a model that allows Power Conference schools (and potentially all Division I schools) to directly pay NIL compensation to athletes. This plan will include an annual cap/maximum on the amount of NIL compensation that a school can pay to all of its athletes. This cap is estimated to be roughly 22% of revenue (approximately $20M), and it will account for up to $5M of Alston payments and new scholarships that schools will also be allowed to award as part of the settlement terms.

The settlement terms will also introduce the elimination of scholarship limits for Power Conference schools and the introduction of new roster limits.

The settlement terms will not prevent collectives from continuing to operate, although the NCAA and conferences are hoping that allowing schools to directly pay NIL compensation will reduce the influence of collectives.

Schools would be allowed to make payments in any manner in which they wish, meaning Title IX would still be addressed at the campus level.

Under the settlement terms being discussed, new NCAA college athletes will be automatically opted into the above terms on an annual basis unless they themselves object and petition the court to not be included.

These new ‘rules’ would likely take effect in the Fall of 2025.

This settlement does not address or stop a possible ‘college athletes as employees’ model, which the NCAA and college athletics leaders hope to avoid by gaining the support of Congress.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Once the settlement is agreed to, the settlement will need to be approved by the judge overseeing the House case. This will likely be a 6-9 month process, where the judge will hear feedback from impacted parties, including current and future college athletes (YOU). It will then approve or disapprove the settlement.

After the settlement is agreed to, the NCAA, conference commissioners, and athletic directors will lobby Congress to pass a bill that will protect the terms of the settlement by providing the NCAA with an antitrust exemption protection or safe harbor that would prevent the NCAA and its conferences from being able to be sued in the future. If this happens, the NCAA could once again place limits on transferring and compensation without athletes having the ability to challenge those rules. A bill that does this may eliminate college athletes’ ability to collectively negotiate for better terms.

WHAT TO DO NOW

Join Athletes.org and encourage your teammates to sign up for YOUR Players’ Association so you can stay up-to-date on these massive events happening in college athletics—and so you can organize, unify, and start having YOUR VOICE heard by leaders in college athletics.

Athletes.org will host video conference with any college athlete who wishes to join, learn more, ask questions, and share concerns. We will send those dates/times as part of your welcome into YOUR Players’ Association.

Tell your coaches to join YOU in signing this petition that supports your right as a college athlete to join YOUR Players’ Association, so you can discuss and negotiate a fair terms at YOUR school.

If you have high school friends who have signed letters of intent to play in college, encourage them and their parents to sign this petition that informs the world that they do not plan on agreeing to the terms of this settlement when they enter college, because it was not negotiated with a player’s association/advocacy group.