On Thursday night, reporting came through that the NCAA and the Power 5 athletic conferences (the Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, Big 12 and ACC) have reached a settlement on multiple antitrust cases brought against college sports’ governing body. The P5 have agreed to drop their cases in exchange for a new deal that will see the NCAA pay out over $2.7 billion in damages to former athletes and sets up a revenue-sharing model that will see over $1 billion paid out each year.
This is an absolutely historic moment that has ended the vision of collegiate athletics as we know it. Student-athletes will no longer be considered “amateurs” like they have been for over a century, and now will be able to reap the benefits of a huge money-making industry that they’ve propped up for years and years.
Of course, there will ramifications down the line from this decision that will undoubtedly continue to shift the landscape of college athletics in a variety of ways. Recent changes to rules around name, image, and likeness (NIL) already began to stretch the gap between wealthier and poorer athletic programs, which will no doubt continue to stretch with this new revenue-sharing model. New rules surrounding the transfer portal have given student-athletes more freedom to pursue their financial interests across the country with athletic programs that are willing to funnel more money into their pockets.
And the new round of conference realignment these past few years isn’t likely to slow down. Schools and conferences will continue pursue higher revenue wherever they can find it in order to pay for their talented rosters, while abandoning the old concepts of historic rivalries and geographic cohesion if it doesn’t fit in their financial models.
All in all, it’s not hard to see how a decision like this will send college athletics down a path unlike any its been down before, one that may be worse for fans of schools like Boston College. But despite those changes to the landscape, student-athletes are finally going to be earning their share of the wealth that they are responsible for creating. That’s something worth celebrating.