The N.C.A.A.’s Landmark Athlete-Pay Settlement, Explained

The $2.8 billion agreement announced on Thursday would, if approved by a judge, allow college athletes to share team revenue for the first time. Here is what we know.

When the N.C.A.A. and the major athletic conferences agreed on Thursday night to a $2.8 billion settlement of a class-action antitrust lawsuit by college athletes, it was a pivotal moment in the long history of college sports.

For the first time, the N.C.A.A. agreed to allow colleges and universities to pay athletes directly for playing sports, through revenue sharing plans.

The agreement also would pay compensation to close to 25,000 athletes who attended 363 Division I colleges and were denied the ability to make money by marketing their names and images during their playing days. Restrictions on those kinds of deals were lifted by the N.C.A.A. in 2021.

Here’s what we know about the settlement and its possible impact.

This settlement would create a system through which Division I athletes can be paid directly by their schools for playing sports — a first in the nearly 120-year history of the N.C.A.A. An earlier decision three years ago permitted college athletes to make money on their own by marketing their names and images individually.

Not yet. The federal judge in California, Claudia Wilken, who is presiding over the case, known as House v. N.C.A.A., will decide in the next few months whether to approve or reject the settlement.