Wow, the House settlement agreement changed everything! I never thought I’d see the day that these Power 5 schools would agree to pay players directly, but it’s here. This all came about because of a (federal) class action lawsuit filed in California, in which Grant House and 5 other Division 1 athletes challenged the NCAA’s longtime restrictions on student-athletes receiving compensation for their NIL and other forms of compensation directly tied to their athletic play.
The lawsuit challenged the NCAA’s system of preventing student-athletes from receiving the revenue they generate. They did this under antitrust laws that block against unfair business practices which hurt consumers and others in the market. As pointed out in the lawsuit, the amount of money that student-athletes have missed out on is staggering:
The NCAA’s $8.8 billion deal with CBS Sports
· CBS & Turner Broadcasting took in $1 billion from ads during the NCAA 2018 tournament
· A 2019 overtime game between UVA and Texas Tech generated $114 million in ad spending
· U of Michigan’s $173.8 million deal with Nike
There’s a lot that’s discussed in the Settlement Agreement—it’s over 80 pages—but between the Settlement Agreement and new rules, there are some key components that student-athletes and families should know. The first is revenue sharing.
The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Pac-12, and Notre Dame (although they are not obligated to) may now pay student-athletes up to amount 22% of certain revenue they receive through athletics.
This is called the “Pool.” The Pool is estimated to be $20.5M for 2025. This means that $20.5M is the maximum amount each school can pay per year in extra benefits or payments to student-athletes—that is, an additional $20.5M in scholarship money, payments, NIL deals with student-athletes, and other benefits. That’s right: schools may now do NIL deals with student-athletes directly. But more on that later.
The value of the Pool was determined by adding up all the revenues the schools made from media rights (television, radio, internet, e-commerce, etc.), payments for participating in away games, NCAA payments, sponsorships and advertisements, football bowl revenue, and payments from the conferences. They then divided that amount by the number of schools—so the average revenue per school made from those categories of athletic revenues—and, lastly, multiplied this figure by 22%.
Based on the revenues that each sport brings in, we can estimate how much each school may allocate in Pool payments and benefits to each sport—one caveat, though, this estimate applies to the extent the schools pay out the entire $20.5M amount, which may not happen as they could pay out whatever amount below $20.5M they’d like to. See the chart below for a breakdown of this estimate, which also includes the newly-agreed-upon roster limits for each sport.
Check back in for the next blog post on how we these funds can be paid to student-athletes!
Jordan Duval is a Sports and Litigation Attorney based in New York City and a former Division 1 athlete who played football for the University of South Florida (USF—go Bulls!).
This blog post and information included herein represents my personal opinions and not the opinions of my employer, Proskauer Rose LLP. This document and information herein is for informational purposes only and is not and does not contain legal advice, and you should consult an attorney when engaging in contract interpretation or negotiation, interpretation of the law, and any other similar activity. The information provided herein is only a general overview and is not meant to fully explain each topic or legal concept discussed, let alone replace legal advice from an attorney. Last updated July 2025.
