NCAA agrees to let schools pay college athletes. How much? When will it start?

The structure of college sports is about to change. Get ready for schools to start paying athletes directly.

Thursday night, NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a release alongside the major college sports conferences, including the ACC and SEC, announcing an agreement to a landmark settlement in a case involving athlete compensation. The deal would set aside nearly $2.8 billion in backpay to thousands of current and former college athletes while also setting up a system that would allow schools to pay up to $20 million per year to their athletes.

It’s the latest massive turn in how college sports has traditionally been run. Student athletes were permitted to enter name, image and likeness (NIL) deals starting in 2021, which led to college football and basketball stars (and players in all sports) getting paid legitimately for the first time. That has led to the return of EA Sports’ beloved video game with the soon-to-be-released College Football 25.

What will this latest development mean? Are Florida, FSU and other schools across the country going to start paying its stars in time for the 2024 college football season? Here’s what we know.

The case is one of many lawsuits the NCAA faced regarding NIL rights. Former Arizona State swimmer Grant House filed the antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA in 2020, which was later joined by former TCU basketball player Sedona Prince and became a class-action lawsuit.

The former athletes argued that the former NIL rules and NCAA bylaws illegally suppressed athletes’ earning potential. Many of those rules have since become obsolete since the 2021 Supreme Court decision in NCAA v. Alston opened the doors for states to allow college athletes to sign NIL deals.

And even those contracts aren’t fair compensation, athlete advocates claim. While some athletes, such as former Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark and current Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, have been able to earn millions of dollars in endorsement money, that’s paltry compared to the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-agrees-let-schools-pay-195545398.html

Author : Tallahassee Democrat

Publish date : 2024-05-24 19:55:45

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.