NCAA Will Allow Universities To Revenue Share With Student-Athletes, Kicking Doors Open to ‘Big Money’ in College Sports

After years of litigation, amateurism is dead in college sports — and it’s the Wild West all over again. Last week, a federal judge OK’d a settlement that would allow the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and powerful conferences like the Big Ten and SEC to share revenue with athletes.

• Leveling the playing field, universities will now be allowed to direct $20.5M per year in “revenue sharing” from their own budgets to student-athletes for use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) — money that’ll likely come from ticket sales and TV contracts.
• Before this, the NIL system was a wildly unregulated marketplace where brands and ‘school-affiliated’ collectives were the only ones permitted to pay student-athletes, often as an incentive to transfer to their program.

Forward-looking: NCAA President Charlie Baker said the settlement “opens a pathway to begin stabilizing college sports.” New legislation by Congress even seeks to add predictability through a national NIL law, which would effectively regulate it. However, there is the possibility that the influx of money into college athletics could lead to further fracturing and political maneuvering — producing more uncertainty for TV deals, emerging businesses, and colleges.