NCAA, college leaders file landmark agreement in antitrust cases; here’s what was settled and what’s next

For decades, the NCAA and college sports leaders went to great lengths to both avoid court and congressional intervention.

Now, in the wake of a landmark settlement agreement, the courts hold significant oversight over the industry’s new model and only Congress can prevent what some college leaders see as an inevitable end — athlete employment.

The NCAA and power conferences on Friday filed their 100-plus page long-form agreement in the settlement of three antitrust lawsuits (House, Hubbard and Carter), ushering in a future of athlete revenue sharing, expanding scholarships to full rosters and creating a historic enforcement system of arbitration overseen by the courts. The new concepts take effect at the start of the 2025-26 academic year next summer or fall.

The plaintiff attorneys, representing thousands of athletes who brought the class-action suits over athlete compensation or lack thereof, separately filed documents Friday detailing how they plan to distribute nearly $2.8 billion in back damages to former players over a 10-year period.

According to documents sent to Yahoo Sports, 83% of the back pay — $2.3 billion — is expected to go to an estimated 19,000 football and men’s basketball players, many of them from power conferences. That is an average of about $120,000 per player over the 10-year period, or $12,000 a year.

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The back-damages formula could guide how schools distribute revenue going forward. The first back payments are due this coming spring after, presumably, the settlement is approved by presiding Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court of Northern California.

Friday’s filings were the latest step in a settlement approval process that could stretch, attorneys contend, into the early portion of next year.

The long-form filing from…

Source link : https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaa-college-leaders-file-landmark-agreement-in-antitrust-cases-heres-what-was-settled-and-whats-next-210539610.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-26 21:05:39

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