It took five years for the $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and five major conferences to reach a settlement. Now comes the process of implementing it.

The following are significant dates:

June 6, 2025

Settlement approved; settlement-related NCAA rules are effective, as adopted by the NCAA Division I Board on April 21, 2025.

June 11, 2025

NIL Go portal launches.

June 15, 2025

Opt-in deadline for non-defendant schools to fully commit to revenue sharing.

July 1, 2025

First date for direct institutional revenue-sharing payments to student-athletes.

July 6, 2025

Opt-in schools must “designate” student-athletes permitted by the settlement to remain above roster limits.

Start of 2025-26 academic year

Except for the “designated” student-athletes, fall sports must be at or below roster limits by their first day of competition.

December 1, 2025

Except for “designated” student-athletes, winter and spring sports must be at or below roster limits by their first day of competition or Dec. 1, whichever is earlier.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Friday night was monumental for college athletics. California Judge Claudia Wilken approved the $2.8 billion House v. NCAA settlement — an agreement that was a long time coming after nearly a year of deliberation and months of waiting for approval.

The decision means Division I schools can now pay their athletes directly, while new scholarship and roster limits will be effective July 1. A salary cap will also be in place, which is estimated to begin at $20.5 million per school in 2025-26.

Additionally, the NCAA will pay back $2.8 billion in damages across the next decade at approximately $280 million annually to all D1 athletes who participated between 2016 and 2024.

Revenue sharing

Most athletic programs, including Penn State, plan to use the majority of the revenue-sharing money on football, but every other team is also set to receive investment from the Nittany Lions in this new era of college athletics.

Per NIL-NCAA, it’s been estimated that Penn State will spend 91% of that $20.5 million on football and men’s basketball. Men’s hockey comes in third with an estimated $394,839 available to pay its athletes, then wrestling with $310,241.

Women’s hockey and women’s volleyball are expected to receive $83,794 and $79,371 respectively, while women’s basketball is estimated to have $63,218 to pay its athletes. Men’s tennis is set to receive the least amount with just $15,064, an average of $1,674 per player.

Women’s soccer will receive $61,440 with the men getting $39,825. Baseball has $53,323 to use, while softball is estimated to have $47,991. In short, each sport at Penn State is getting some sum of money to share among its athletes.

It’s worth noting that these estimates assume “each school limits total revenue sharing to 22% of its annual athletic department revenues – this is the percentage utilized in the proposed settlement in House v NCAA.

This money is on top of scholarship earnings and separate from NIL money, which will now have to be reported through the new NIL Go portal. The portal will be run by Deloitte with the purpose of reviewing all third-party NIL deals worth $600 or more in aggregate to ensure deals are made at fair market value.

Roster limits

While the settlement eliminates scholarship limits, it adds roster limits, meaning each team will have to decrease the number of players on its roster. This change allows any athletes on the team to receive scholarship aid, allowing teams to offer a scholarship to each player up to the roster limits.

Men’s basketball is limited to 15 athletes, while the women are capped at 14. Baseball has a limit of 34, and men’s and women’s lacrosse are capped at 48 and 35, respectively.

Women’s volleyball is allowed 15 roster spots, men’s hockey has 26 and women’s hockey is capped at 23. How the revenue sharing allocated to each team is split among the roster is up to the discretion of the program.

There are rules to “grandfather” in the roster limits, which Judge Wilken requested when she paused the implementation of the settlement.

The final ruling reads: “…the parties modified the [settlement agreement] to provide that settlement class members whose roster spots were taken away or would have been taken away because of the immediate implementation of the SA will be exempt from roster limits at any Division I school for the duration of their college athletics careers.”

In short, those who would’ve been cut because of the new roster limits will instead have the opportunity to play out the rest of their collegiate eligibility.

Penn State will have until June 15 to fully commit to revenue sharing and will have to “designate” athletes it wants grandfathered in. Fall sports must have its roster cut down to its new limit by its first game of the 2025 season, with the exception of the designated athletes. Winter and spring sports must do the same by Dec. 1.

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College sports fans, the future is now.

A federal judge has approved the House v. NCAA settlement on revenue sharing, clearing the way for it to take effect on July 1.

From that day on, Division I schools will be allowed to directly pay their student-athletes, so long as they stay under a predetermined annual cap.

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NIL, or name, image and likeness, deals, including from booster-funded collectives, will remain available to college athletes, but most deals will now be reviewed by a clearinghouse aimed at making the NIL market more organized and fair.

The now-approved settlement will also bring with it new scholarship rules and roster limits, and it will resolve multiple antitrust lawsuits with a $2.8 billion payout to athletes who couldn’t access NIL funds in the past due to the timing of their college careers.

Lingering legal issues

Although the ruling will change college sports as you know it, it actually won’t create much work for school leaders in the short term.

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Most programs are already prepared for a post-settlement world since Judge Claudia Wilken granted preliminary approval of the plan in October.

Over the past few months, coaches have been meeting with athletes about the changes and school administrators have prepared for revenue sharing, such as by hiking the price of concessions, as the Deseret News previously reported.

Final approval of the settlement does open the door to new types of lawsuits, including legal battles over the clearinghouse’s assessments of NIL deals.

College sports experts, including Stewart Mandel at The Athletic, anticipate battles over athletes’ “fair market value” and athlete employment rights.

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“I remain skeptical that (the settlement) will solve much of anything,” Mandel wrote in early April.

The House v. NCAA settlement is expected to supercharge debates over related antitrust issues, including whether student-athletes are employees.

“Industry leaders have asked Congress to write a new law that would prevent athletes from becoming employees and provide the NCAA with an antitrust exemption to create some caps on player pay and transfers,” per ESPN.

Background of the House settlement

Although many legal battles are yet to be fought, most college sports leaders see the House v. NCAA settlement as an important step forward.

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Supporters believe it will help tame the chaos of the current NIL era, which began in 2021, when the Supreme Court ruled that individual athletes, not their schools, should control — and be able to profit off of — athletes’ name, image and likeness rights.

That ruling ultimately made it harder for many programs to hold on to their star players, since it made it possible for booster collectives at other schools to tempt them away with major NIL deals, as the Deseret News previously reported.

While top athletes will still be able to snag huge deals moving forward, the settlement returns some power to schools — and should reduce the influence of collectives.

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“NCAA president Charlie Baker and others believe the deal will help schools regain control and tamp down the sky-rocketing, largely unregulated market for paying college players through third parties,” ESPN reported.

In a letter released Friday after the House settlement was approved, Baker wrote that he believes stabilization is on the way for college sports, but knows challenges remain. He called on Congress to take action to ensure that schools can enter the new era on solid ground.

“Opportunities to drive transformative change don’t come often to organizations like ours. It’s important we make the most of this one,” Baker wrote.

WILMINGTON, Del. – Senior Maddie Aho and sophomore Delaney Miller of the Skidmore College women’s rowing team were both named to the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-America Second Team as announced by the organization on Friday.
 
The CRCA All-American Awards recognize the most outstanding collegiate rowers and coxswains across all NCAA divisions and the lightweight category. These athletes have demonstrated elite athletic performance, leadership, consistency, and dedication throughout the season, earning distinction among the top rowers in the nation.
 
This prestigious recognition honors athletes who have contributed significantly to their teams while meeting high standards in competition and training. The All-American teams also serve as the foundation for the selection of Athlete of the Year Finalists—with one ultimate Athlete of the Year selected from each division.
 
Both Aho and Miller earned All-Liberty League accolades on Thursday – Aho on the First Team, Miller on the Second Team. The recognition makes them just the second and third student-athletes in program history to claim All-America honors.

2025 CRCA All-Americans