A landmark class-action settlement is poised to transform the business of college sports, paving the way for student-athletes to receive direct compensation for both past participation and future revenue sharing.

The agreement covers athletes from 2016 to 2024 and includes $2.8 billion in back pay to be distributed over 10 years. Starting in July 2025, each Division I school will also be able to share up to $20.5 million annually in athletic revenue with student-athletes under a new compensation model.

Fritz Metzinger, a sports attorney at Stone Pigman, tells Daily Report that while the NCAA will shoulder a significant share of the back pay, schools will also be required to contribute.

“The majority of it, based on a formula the NCAA and the schools came up with, is going to go to football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball players,” Metzinger says. “Not all of it, but a vast majority of it.

“As of July 1 for the 2025-2026 season, all power conference schools and any other Division I school that that opts in that wants to is going to be able to share up to, for this first year, about $20.5 million in athletic department revenue directly with their athletes,” Metzinger says. “They don’t have to share that full amount. Technically, under the settlement, they can allocate it however they choose.”

While individual schools can tailor how they distribute payments, LSU is expected to follow the NCAA’s damages-based formula: 75% to football, 15% to men’s basketball, and 5% each to women’s basketball and all other sports.

The allocation could raise concerns about underfunding successful nonrevenue programs, such as LSU’s baseball, gymnastics, and track and field programs.

“For LSU, I think it’ll benefit them, because the salary cap is about average for a power conference university,” Metzinger says. “LSU does better than that. They’re a successful athletic program, but they’ve got some interesting sports that excel but aren’t traditionally huge revenue builders.”

The settlement also includes provisions for a new College Sports Commission, which will oversee name, image and likeness deals exceeding $600, particularly those involving boosters or collectives.

“They’re going to review whether the deal is with a booster or a collective and then they’re going to see if the deal and the value of the deal is for a real business purpose,” Metzinger says. “Is it really a commercial, a sponsorship deal to appear in a few commercials for business, and are they getting paid? Or is it millions of dollars and the true purpose is to get somebody to come and play for their program?”

In March, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order shielding state postsecondary institutions from penalties by the NCAA or athletic conferences for facilitating NIL compensation. The order remains in effect until either a federal NIL law is enacted or the settlement takes effect.

While no conflicting statutes are currently in place, lawmakers have previously considered exempting NIL earnings from state income tax—legislation that could reemerge.

Metzinger anticipates additional legal challenges ahead.

“Federal law is going to be the only thing that calms it down,” he says. “But until then, there are going to be more lawsuits and more questions.”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported this week that eight female athletes have filed an appeal of the NCAA antitrust settlement, contending that women would not receive a fair share of the back pay allocated to athletes previously barred from profiting off their name, image and likeness.

In the world of NIL, tampering across college athletics is as prevalent as it’s likely ever been.

This includes softball.

In the case of Tennessee softball, it may have been the victim of tampering of one of its star players. As reported by Softball on SI, Texas Tech’s third-party NIL collective, The Matador Club, had been in contact with top players throughout the season.

In the report, Lady Vols All-American third baseman Taylor Pannell was listed. She entered the transfer portal with a ‘Do Not Contact’ tag on Thursday and was publicly committed to the Red Raiders by the end of the night.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

With Tennessee losing the best returning bat in its lineup, Lady Vols coach Karen Weekly took to social media to give her thoughts on tampering and the prevalence of NIL. She never directly mentioned Pannell or Texas Tech in the post.

“I think we can all agree on 2 things:,” Weekly wrote. “1) women making money in sports is awesome and long overdue; 2) contacting players (directly or indirectly) before their season ends and signing them to NIL deals before they enter the portal is wrong. Money ins’t the issue – tampering is!”

Pannell is coming off her redshirt sophomore season where she dominated at the plate. The third baseman hit at a .398 average while smacking 16 home runs. This was good for 65 RBI and 56 runs.

While drawing 34 walks, her on-base percentage sat at .493 on the season. This helped result in First-Team All-SEC and All-American honors.

In 2024, Pannell was also a First-Team All-SEC member. She hit for a .294 average while lifting eight home runs. She notched 33 RBI and 23 runs on the year.

During that redshirt freshman season, she earned an SEC Freshman of the Week honor in early May.

As a true freshman, she appeared in seven games and started six. In just 14 at-bats, she hit a home run while recording four RBI and four runs. She missed the remainder of the year due to injury.

Pannell is from Milan, Illinois, where she played high school ball for Rock Island. She was considered the top third baseman and No. 4 overall prospect in the 2022 class by Extra Inning Softball.

So far this off-season, Tennessee has gotten off to a strong start in bringing in transfers. The Lady Vols have signed two-way EKU star Maddi Rutan and Boise State All-Mountain West First-Team members Sophia Knight and Makenzie Butt.

UT is coming off another strong season under Weekly. The Lady Vols made a trip to the Women’s College World Series and nearly defeated Oklahoma in the opening game.

Despite the walk-off loss to the Sooners, Tennessee rallied to make a push to the semifinals as one of the final four teams remaining. There, it fell to the eventual champions in Texas.

During the regular season, UT claimed series wins on the road over both Oklahoma and Texas, though.

The Lady Vols are also home to SEC Pitcher of the Year Karlyn Pickens who sung the praises of Tennessee after the final game of the season. There are currently no indications Pickens plans on entering the portal.

Karen Weekly is going hard at tampering issues in college softball. Despite Tennessee’s immense success under her tutelage, the Lady Vols coach has an issue with where the sport stands in 2025.

Evidently, Weekly has no issue with NIL in itself, believing it’s a tremendous revelation that women can make money on their collegiate careers. However, her problem is with coaches and recruiters from other programs contacting players before they even enter the transfer portal. That has her calling out any and all tampering.

“I think we can all agree on two things: 1) Women making money in sports is awesome and long overdue,” Weekly posted on X on Friday. “2) Contacting players (directly or indirectly) before their season ends and signing them to NIL deals before they enter the portal is wrong. Money isn’t the issue, tampering is!”

If you’re a fan of college athletics, it feels like this was inevitable. We’ve seen rumors of tampering in a myriad of other sports, and it would’ve certainly been naive to think that college softball was immune to the problem.

Karen Weekly has been around the bend and found success as college softball has evolved on and off the field. This is one change she won’t stand for, and she’s fighting for justice. We’ll see if she calls anyone out by name or if the NCAA takes notice of the Lady Vols’ leader’s warning in the future.

More on Karen Weekly, Tennessee Volunteers

Moreover, Tennessee made the Women’s College World Series for the second time in the last three seasons under Weekly’s guidance. There are plenty of memories that come along with that run, even if the Lady Vols would have preferred to keep things going all the way to the top. Still, she’s grateful.

“My heart is full because of the young ladies to my right and the young ladies in that locker room. They’re sad for all the right reasons,” Weekly stated earlier this June. “It’s not about wins and losses. It’s about the joy they’ve experienced being together every single day, and I think people saw that in the way we played. They saw them bounce back. They saw how resilient, how gritty and tough they were.

“This has been a group that has been just so much fun to coach. Because they allowed us to coach them, and everything we asked of them all through the season, they bought in completely and just made it really, really fun. My office and our clubhouse is right by the front door. And every one of these guys, they walk in, they have a smile on their face and they greet you.”

All in all, Karen Weekly has been leading the Tennessee program since 2002 and has found plenty of success during her time there, going to the Women’s College World Series nine times. Now, she’ll go back to the drawing board and look to put together another great group of Lady Vols to compete for next season. 

— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall University Women’s Basketball head coach Juli Fulks announced the signing of four transfers for the 2025-26 season.  

Emily Bratton, Ni’Kiah Chesterfield, Emari Doby, and Timaya Lewis-Eutsey come to Marshall with college basketball experience. 

The four join incoming freshmen Olivia Olson, who was signed last November by Fulks, and Zenthia Stowers, a six-foot forward with international experience playing for the New Zealand U18 National Team. 

Bratton made 18 appearances with the Miami RedHawks as a freshman in 2024-25. The finalist for Ms. Basketball Ohio averaged 23 points as a high school senior. 

“We’re excited about her future in a Marshall uniform.”

– @Juli_Fulks on @emily_bratton_ #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/pghjWFe0VH

— Marshall Women’s Basketball (@HerdWBB) May 12, 2025

Chesterfield has two years of college basketball experience at Tusculum. In 54 games across the last two seasons, the six-foot forward averaged over 15 points per game on 53 percent shooting, and six rebounds per contest.

It’s Official

Welcome @NikiahChesterf1 to our Family! #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/ItI1VLn8hG

— Marshall Women’s Basketball (@HerdWBB) May 6, 2025

Doby joins the Herd from Illinois-Springfield, and played at DI Denver University in 2023-24. She averaged 12.0 PPG and 5.0 rebounds per contest with UIS last season. 

It’s official, @Emari_JD is a part of The Herd! #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/I4eVfxJkVm

— Marshall Women’s Basketball (@HerdWBB) May 29, 2025

Lewis-Eutsey has three seasons of experience at VCU. Two seasons ago with the Rams, she finished on the leaderboard of the Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage (.481), free throw percentage, and steals (45). She was named to the All-A10 Third Team in 2023-24.  

Got us one!

Welcome, @timayalewiss to The Herd#ALLIN pic.twitter.com/FfIPnyaZVW

— Marshall Women’s Basketball (@HerdWBB) May 13, 2025

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The 2025 Women’s College World Series came to an end late last week and a national champion other than the Oklahoma Sooners was crowned for the first time in five seasons.

The Sooners gave way this year to Texas and Texas Tech, both of which posted wins over Oklahoma on the way to the national championship series. In the end, it was the hated Longhorns putting their name on the WCWS championship trophy for the very first time, winning two of three games from a Texas Tech team that was making its very first trip to Oklahoma City and the WCWS.

The looming question in Sooner Nation after an atypical season by Oklahoma standards — the Sooners’ 52 wins in 2025 was the fewest since 2015 — was this just a temporary pause as Patty Gasso and Co. retool and readjust to the new world order in college sports to come back as strong as ever going forward?

More pertinently, can Oklahoma not only make it back to the WCWS again in 2026 — it’s almost as if the Sooners have a contract with the overseers of the WCWS that prohibits them from being excluded — but be in a position to win it all and begin an all new championship run?

The answer to the former is “yes,” and because of that, it’s also “yes” to the latter question. After all, history tells us that when Oklahoma makes it to the Women’s College World Series, it has a really good chance of taking home the championship trophy. The Sooners have made it to the WCWS 18 times since 2000 under Gasso, won the national championship eight times and finished as national runner-up twice during that span.

Oklahoma softball has what it takes to get back to the CWS next season

Until the Sooners don’t make it to Oklahoma City and the WCWS, it would seem pretty foolhardy to count them out. And the 2026 group looks really stacked and seasoned looking ahead to next season.

No one outside of the Oklahoma softball program or perhaps the state of Oklahoma could have imagined in their wildest dreams that a team that had to replace 14 spots on a 22-player roster this past season would be playing in the Women’s College World Series this season, let alone be one of the final four teams left standing and just three wins away from a record fifth straight national title.

Thirteen members of the 2025 Sooner roster were underclassmen, nine of those were freshmen, including three freshmen in the starting lineup. Typically, you wouldn’t consider a team with that many young and new players to be on a par with the best teams in the sport

No team has been more dominant in the past quarter century of college softball than the Oklahoma Sooners. OU has been to the WCWS 22 times in program history. Eighteen of those, including this season, have been since 2000, tied with UCLA for the most of any team over that span.

The Sooners aren’t the only team that brings back offensive firepower and lockdown pitching for the 2026 season. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the eight teams we see in next season’s Women’s College World Series have a very familiar look.

A couple of way-too-early projections we’ve seen have reigning champions Texas, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Oregon and Oklahoma returning to the big stage in OKC a year from now, and could 2026 be the year former Sooner Jordy Bahl makes her WCWS return, but in a different uniform?

Any coach or player will tell you it’s a very difficult road to get to the WCWS, and to be able to do it year after year — let alone win it all — is a truly remarkable accomplishment. Whatever happens next college softball season, it should be another strong year for Oklahoma softball. And let’s be brutally honest: It would be a big disappointment if the Sooners fail to make it back to Oklahoma City.