The NCAA’s $2.7 billion settlement officially ended the amateur athlete model. Just in time.

Amateur athletics at the collegiate level have ended. This was officially confirmed on Thursday. The NCAA and the government have reached a $2.7 billion settlement in the House’s antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA. The major conferences approved the agreement. Various details remain to be worked out, but the death knell has sounded for collegiate amateurism.

What does it mean? This means that conferences and universities must compensate former college athletes for name, image and likeness and broadcasting revenue. It also means that current and future power conference athletes will be eligible to be compensated through revenue sharing from an estimated $20 million per year pool beginning in the 2025-2026 academic year. Players will be paid directly by the school. Not a moment too soon.

After all, the amateur athlete model is long outdated. College athletics have been a professional sport at the collegiate level for a long time. There is too much money at stake for it to be otherwise. Multi-million coaches’ salaries, administrative salaries, and facility expenses. The Big Ten earned $880 million in fiscal 2023, outpacing the SEC. It is grossly unfair for an athlete not to receive a piece of this financial pie.

You ask: Don’t athletes get a free college education? Isn’t that worth something? Yes and yes, especially with skyrocketing college tuition. But considering the revenue generated by sports and games themselves, as Jay Bilas, a frequent critic of the NCAA, noted, “the scholarship is the LEAST value of the player.”

Case in point: According to a recent report, the Big 12 is paying former commissioner Bob Bowlsby $17.2 million upon his retirement. So much for the NCAA’s argument that it doesn’t have enough money to pay athletes. Please.

It didn’t have to come to this. By denying it for too long, the NCAA has refused to plan for the inevitable. She fought against any initiative that would allow college athletes to be paid. It wasn’t until the NCAA started losing lawsuits that it reluctantly changed its ways. Even then, it reportedly spent $15 million on lobbying to ask Congress to grant antitrust relief.

Said Notre Dame President John I. Jenkins this week: “Congress must pass legislation that preempts the current patchwork of state laws; establish that our athletes are not employees but are degree-seeking students, and provide protection from further antitrust lawsuits that will enable universities to create and enforce policies that will protect our student-athletes and help ensure competitive equity among our teams.”

That’s wealth for Notre Dame, which signed an exclusive television deal with NBC in 1991 and receives $50 million a year from the network.

What does the settlement mean for the future of college sports? Within 10 years, schools must provide funding for past compensation. We could see an increase in ticket prices and greater pressure on legal highs. We could also see private equity groups take a financial stake in college athletic programs. According to reports, the private equity group RedBird Capital Partners has already held talks with 50 universities.

Another likely outcome is contractual arrangements. If schools are going to share revenue with athletes, they will want to receive a commitment in return – an assurance that the athlete will remain a part of the program for the duration of the contract. This may lead to the unionization of athletes.

Is college sports broken? No, it was broken before. As Purdue coach Matt Painter said during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, select athletes have previously been paid under the table. Now the opportunity will be available to everyone. Not an equal playing field — “I expect the athletes who generate the most money will get the greatest economic return,” plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler told The Athletic — but the playing field is the same.

Will college sports survive? Of course. Despite cries that the NIL and the transfer portal will ruin college sports, TV ratings and interest remain high. CBS, NBC and Fox will pay the Big Ten $8 billion over the next seven years. ESPN will pay the SEC $300 million annually for the next 10 years. ESPN will pay $7.8 billion to televise the College Football Playoff over the next six years.

Finally, college athletes will receive some of that money. Just in time.

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