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Now what after House settlement?
Schools can now pay players directly, but there's a cap. How will this work? And will everyone abide by the rules? Plus: St. John's adds a 2025 prospect, Washington takes USC's backcourt, Texas A&M gets a shooter, and much more.
Mike Miller
June 09, 2025
In partnership with
Good morning! They say Friday afternoons are the best time to drop a significant story that you want people to overlook.
Well, let’s get into what you may have missed with House v. NCAA settlement. (And the rest of the college hoops weekend.)
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1. How the House settlement affects college hoops
Friday officially opened a new era in college sports.
Federal judge Claudia Wilken approved a deal between the NCAA, its largest conferences, and college athletes that allows colleges to start paying its athletes directly. The House v. NCAA settlement ended three separate federal lawsuit and formalized the process for how college sports will work going forward.
For those who need a refresher, or have ignored the regular updates over the last year, here’s a summary from ESPN:
The NCAA will pay nearly $2.8 billion in back damages over the next 10 years to athletes who competed in college at any time from 2016 through present day. Moving forward, each school can pay its athletes up to a certain limit. The annual cap is expected to start at roughly $20.5 million per school in 2025-26 and increase every year during the decade-long deal. These new payments are in addition to scholarships and other benefits the athletes already receive.
Friday's order is a major milestone in the long push to remove outdated amateurism rules from major college sports. Since 2021, college athletes have been allowed to make money from third parties via name, image and likeness deals. Boosters quickly organized groups called collectives that used NIL money as de facto salaries for their teams, in some cases paying millions of dollars mostly to top-rated basketball and football players. Now, that money will come straight from the athletic departments.
Revenue sharing will be implemented over the course of 2025 (see key dates here), though school administrators and other officials are skeptical the caps will be strictly followed. (More on that below.) Football programs are expected to account for $13 million to $16 million of the revenue sharing, which doesn’t leave a much for the other sports programs (Olympic sports coaches are mad). That includes basketball.
Theoretically, schools without football should have more to spend on basketball rosters, but whether that’s feasible in the long term remains to be seen. Roster limits expanded as part of the settlement (basketball teams now have up to 15 scholarships), but how that money is disbursed among the players won’t be straightforward. This is why schools have been hiring general managers and new staff. They have to meet standards set by the newly implemented College Sports Commission and figure out how to make it all work.
It also swings power away from athletes — ah, those massive NIL paydays — and back to the schools.
Hope the players enjoyed the buyer’s market and bidding wars. Well, at least the bidding wars that the general public can view.
2. Will everyone just cheat?
Programs can spend up to $20.5 million next season. That’s a lot for any non-power 5 conference. So they’ll adhere to that standard, right?
