The NCAA and its five power conferences completed voting Thursday night to approve a settlement agreement that paves the way for universities to pay athletes directly, a change that would crush any last notions of amateurism in major college sports.
The agreement, which covers three antitrust cases, includes almost $2.8 billion in damages to be distributed to current and former athletes, who sued in House v. NCAA over not being compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) on television broadcasts. But no matter how high the damages are, the most far-reaching component of the settlement terms is a new revenue-sharing model, which would pay athletes a cut of money their schools generate from broadcast rights deals, ticket sales and sponsorships, among other streams.
