The organization reached a landmark deal at the end of last month that allows schools to pay student-athletes for the first time, which is set to come into play in the fall of 2025

The NCAA’s mega-money settlement with its five power conference leagues has changed the college sports landscape forever, with student-athletes now set to be paid by their institutions for the very first time.

Despite being built upon a foundation of amateurism, college sports will now become part of a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model in which schools can pay athletes up to $20.5 million a year starting in 2025-26. After U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ended three separate antitrust lawsuits last week, colleges will also back-pay athletes $2.8 billion for those who competed from 2016 to 2025.

It comes shortly after the University of Oklahoma announced to its athletic department employees that it would be trimming the staff as a result of revenue sharing with student athletes, with five percent set to lose their jobs. Elsewhere, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has called on the NCAA to have just one transfer portal window instead of two.

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Starting in the fall of 2025, athletes will now be paid directly by their schools through revenue-sharing, which will count for roughly $20 million per year, although this figure could well increase each year depending on more lucrative television deals coming through.

It is up to each school, however, how they choose to spend their $20 million budget each year, from how much is used to pay players, which players are paid, and how much they receive.

The new revenue-sharing model will also have no effect on current name, image and likeness (NIL) deals, which have completely changed the game in college sports since their inception a few years ago.

NIL deals allow players to earn money through endorsements, social media, and other business ventures, with some even turning fresh-faced teenagers into millionaires before they’ve hit the professional game.

Luckily for students, NIL deals will be going nowhere. However, the NCAA settlement includes a reporting aspect whereby athletes must report third-party NIL deals that are not part of the revenue-sharing allotment they receive.

NIL deals could, however, be a way for schools to pay more than the $20 million they can distribute to players, although it’s been reported that the NCAA is set to monitor this going forward.

Some of the money schools will use to pay their student athletes will come via ever-growing TV rights packages, especially for the likes of the College Football Playoff and March Madness.

Some schools are also increasing costs to fans through “talent fees”, “concession price hikes”, and “athletic fees” added to tuition costs, providing another source of income for them to distribute.

College football and college basketball are the two highest-earning sports, with top quarterbacks reportedly getting paid around $2m a year, which would eat up about 10 per cent of a typical school’s NIL budget for all its athletes.

As for the NCAA payout to former athletes who competed between 2016-2024, this will only be available for those who were either fully or partially shut out from those payments under previous NCAA rules.

I prepared before coming to the combine … I had around 16 interviews. You just have to be grateful that you have a chance to talk to any team because interacting with teams that you grow watching and maybe playing for was just so awesome.

I was asked to speak about my meeting with the Islanders, since I did grow up an Islanders fan. I met with them on Wednesday, and I also went out to dinner with the team. (General manager) Mathieu Darche is an amazing human being and was so easy to talk to. It was easy to connect with them and just have a natural good conversation. Dinner was awesome. I’m not too sure where we went, but it was great food, great conversation.

I felt the VO2 Max bike test was tougher than the Wingate bike test because it’s a lot longer. They’re both real tough though. On the Wingate, you have to go all out for 30 seconds, and you’re putting everything you have into the bike.

You want to be able to show your best on the bike. I think digging deep … just kind of showing everything you have inside. You have to make sure you push harder and harder.

Overall, I thought the testing went well and is a great foundation. I know I could get all these scores up and that means getting back in the weight room and working hard. I’m really happy with how I did but I know I could take a huge step and this was just a start.

It was good to have ‘Hens’ as my partner during the testing. We were pushing each other and in each other’s ears for every test. After every score, we would tap each other and say, “Go beat that.”

Now I’ll get ready for the NHL Draft, which is going to be a lot of fun. I really won’t know my offseason workout plan until after I’m drafted and have that conversation with the team that selects me. In the meantime, I’ll be on the ice and working out, of course.

I thought this was a great experience overall. I think one of the cool things was just kind of walking around the suites, interacting with the players, making sure you’re at the right suite and on time.

This was a week that only happens once, so you remember it the rest of your life.

Thanks for reading. Talk to you one last time after the draft.

A long-time associate coach is leaving State College for greener pastures.

Former Penn State Associate Coach Keith Fisher has been hired as the new head coach at Lindenwood University.

Lindenwood University has hired @PennStateMHKY Associate Coach Keith Fisher as the new Head Coach of the men’s Ice Hockey program. An official announcement is expected Monday. @LULionsHockey

— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) June 7, 2025

Fisher spent seven seasons as an associate coach for the Nittany Lions, in addition to 13 total years with the program.

In his 13 years, Fisher helped lead the blue and white to five NCAA Tournament berths, one conference postseason tournament title and one regular season championship.

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Fisk University’s gymnastics program — the first in HBCU history — is shutting down.

The Nashville, TN-based HBCU announced in an email on Friday that it will discontinue the sport. According to College Gym News, the university cited challenges with aligning gymnastics to its current athletics structure.

“We are tremendously proud of the history our gymnastics team has made in just three years,” said Fisk Director of Athletics Valencia Jordan. “But we look forward to focusing on our conference-affiliated teams to strengthen our impact in the HBCU Athletic Conference. Fisk is grateful for the hard work, dedication, and tenacity of its gymnasts, staff members, and coaches who made this program possible.”

The groundbreaking program drew national attention from the start. Fisk hired Corrine Tarver— the first Black woman to compete in gymnastics at the University of Georgia and a national champion— as head coach. Morgan Price, who turned down a chance to compete in the SEC, became the team’s breakout star. She joined several other young gymnasts eager to make history on the inaugural HBCU squad.

The team got off to a strong start in 2023 and improved in 2024. Price won the national championship in the all-around and defended her title in 2025.

However, cracks began to appear earlier this season. Tarver, who had also served as athletics director, stepped down midseason. Fisk faced financial aid issues tied to FAFSA processing delays, which created uncertainty for many students. Last summer, Nashville’s Metro Council stepped in with $500,000 in emergency funding to support the university.

Price announced last month she would transfer to Arkansas for her final season. Now, the program she and her teammates helped build appears to be finished. This decision comes about a year after Talladega College — the first HBCU to announce a gymnastics program — ended its own after just one season.

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Olympic gymnastics champion Simone Biles is going head-to-head with one of the most vocal opponents of transgender girls and women competing in female sports, former college swimmer Riley Gaines.

Biles — the most decorated Olympic gymnast is history — called the former college athlete “sick” and a “sore loser” in a post on X Friday night.

“You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports,” Biles, 28, wrote. “Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!!”

“But instead… You bully them,” Biles continued. “One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”

As a college swimmer, Gaines tied for fifth place in a competition with then-University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who is transgender, in 2022.

Since then, Gaines has largely built a career as a pundit in conservative media advocating against trans women competing in female sports, arguing that it is unfair to include them in competition and their inclusion is at times unsafe for other competitors.

Gaines, 25, has also built an enormous following on social media, with over 1.5 million followers on X, where she regularly lambastes and mocks transgender athletes.

On Friday, Gaines posted an image of a Minnesota girls high school baseball team, which supposedly includes a trans player. She appeared to taunt the player, referring to her as a boy, which appears to have elicited Biles’ response.

Gaines almost immediately responded to Biles’ criticism in a series of posts on X.

“This is so disappointing. My take is the least controversial take on the planet,” Gaines wrote. “Simone Biles being a male-apologist at the expense of young girls’ dreams? Didn’t have that on my bingo card.”

The issues of trans girls and women competing in female sports has become a lightning rod issue in the United States in recent years.

In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to prohibit transgender women and girls from competing in female sports.

Before that, at least 27 states already had laws, regulations or policies banning transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identities, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com