2.75 billion and 20 million per school: college sports pays players

The case began with a class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The defendants were the NCAA and five college conferences. Grant House, a swimmer at Arizona State University, and Sedona Prince, a basketball player at Texas Christian University, brought the suit. They sought damages for the use of their likeness and an order to lift restrictions on sharing broadcast revenue.

Judge Claudia Ann Wilken took the case. She had previously ruled for the plaintiffs in O'Bannon v. NCAA (2014) and Alston v. NCAA (2020). In November 2023, Wilken granted class-action status for the damages portion. This expanded the class to all Division I athletes who played after 2016, with a four-year statute of limitations.

The sums and the model

On May 23, 2024, the NCAA voted for a settlement worth 2.75 billion dollars. Universities gained the right to share revenue with Division I athletes who played from 2016 onward, up to 20 million dollars per institution. Judge Wilken gave final approval on June 6, 2025.

Players have another income stream. A separate market for name, image and likeness rights, known as NIL, has grown. California was the first state to regulate it. In September 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 206, the Fair Pay to Play Act, drafted by senators Nancy Skinner and Steven Bradford. The NCAA responded with an interim policy after the Alston ruling, and states began passing their own laws.

Under the revenue-sharing model, NIL deals now reach 20.5 million dollars a year for a single athlete. Such sums were unthinkable in college sports a decade ago. For decades, the NCAA defended the amateur model, limiting benefits to scholarships and modest stipends.

Data as a condition

The third element is less visible but central to this system. Without measurement, there is no division. To calculate an athlete's value relative to the school and conference, a data stream from college competition is required. It was no accident that in May 2018 the NCAA announced a statistics initiative for its 1,100 members, run with Genius Sports. The company modernized how schools and conferences use game statistics.

College sport got television first, then money, and finally the measuring apparatus that allows that money to be divided.

Consequences are visible in disputes still being settled: taxation, the effect on Title IX, competitive balance, and whether NIL blurs the line between college and professional sport. An American university is no longer just a school. It is an entity that settles the value of an athlete.