Special Report: The House v. NCAA Settlement Delivers a Historic Win for College Athletes

The settlement raises projected college athlete compensation to over $2.7 billion annually, growing to over $32 billion total over 10 years.

The approval by the NCAA and the autonomy (Power Five) conferences of the historic settlement in House v. NCAA and related cases is the latest step in the transformation of college athletics and ushers in a new era where athletes begin to receive their fair share of the value created. While there are still several legal and procedural steps remaining, The Athlete’s Bureau wanted to offer a primer on the types and amount of compensation colleges athletes can expect to receive from this settlement.

How We Got Here

Since the O’Bannon v. NCAA ruling in 2015, it was clear this day would come —the only question was when. This decade-long athlete compensation journey is led by powerhouse plaintiffs attorneys (Steve Berman and Jeffrey Kessler) on behalf of college athletes. The tide decisively shifted in athletes’ favor after a 9-0 Supreme Court decision in Alston v. NCAA. With the ensuing new state name, image, and likeness (NIL) laws and a changing legal climate, the NCAA adopted its Interim NIL Policy, allowing athletes to legally profit from their NIL. Now, following the House settlement, the income streams available to college athletes are set to include a revenue share and, for a set period of time, back-pay from the years before NIL was legalized, going back to 2016.

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How much money will college athletes make in the first decade of this new era?