The hearing on the $ 2.8 billion NCAA regulation could lock seismic changes

By Eddie Pells, national writer of Associated Press

A few hours before university basketball run its next champion, the future of university sports will be suspended in a courtroom in California.

The planned hearing of the US District Judge Claudia Wilken on Monday in a courtroom in Oakland should be the last before changes really start as part of a settlement of $ 2.8 billion of five years of a five -year trial against NCAA and the largest conferences in the country. Among other things, this will open the way to schools to pay up to $ 20.5 million each with their athletes.

Wilken has already granted the preliminary approval of the regulation. We did not know if it will give the final approval at the hearing on Monday, which should include the testimony of some of those who oppose the details of the sprawling plan. The gymnast and influencer LSU Olivia Dunne are among the 18 people planned to testify, although it should appear via Zoom.

The new structure described by the regulations, which represents a change of billions of dollars of schools in the pockets of athletes, is supposed to come into force on July 1.

Universities across the country have been busy making plans, assuming that Wilken will put into force the terms.

“We are going to have a plan before July 1, then we will probably spend the next year to determine how good this plan is and how we have to change it in the future,” said Florida Scott Stricklin sports director, whose department is among the largest in the country and includes a Gators male basketball team playing for the national title Monday against Houston.

The so-called colony of the house, named after the swimmer of the state of Arizona Grant House, actually decides three similar proceedings which were grouped into one. The defendants are the NCAA and the conferences of the Southeast, Big Ten, the Atlantic coast, Big 12 and PAC-12, which all boasted the colony as the best way to follow for their industry.

“It is a huge step forward for university sports, in particular at the highest level,” said the president of the NCAA, Charlie Baker, whose organization continues to request antitrust protections of the Congress. “My biggest problem with how everything is working at the moment is that schools have been deleted from the main relationship with student-athletes.”

The most retained part of the regulation calls for schools of the largest conferences to pay around 22% of their income from media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships – which is equivalent to around $ 20.5 million in the first year – directly to athletes for the use of their names, images and resemblance (Nile).

Still authorized would not be payments to athletes from external sources, which has triggered the seismic change that university sports have endured in the past four years. For example, Cooper Flagg of Duke would have made $ 4.8 million in group transactions affiliated to school and others.

The regulations require a “exchange center” to ensure that any zero transaction worth more than $ 600 is set for “fair market value”. It is an attempt to prevent direct offers from “paying for the game”, although many criticisms think that the whole new structure is simply zero like that.

Another key element is the 2.8 billion dollars in damages to athletes who played sports between 2016 and 2024 and were not authorized to all the advantages of zero when they attended schools. These payments are calculated by a formula that will promote football and basketball players and will be distributed by NCAA and conferences.

The regulations also call to replace the limits of the scholarships with list limits. The effect would be to allow each athlete to be eligible for a scholarship while reducing the number of available spots.

There will be winners and losers under such a formula, although some fear that this can point out the end of the athlete “without an appointment” in university sports and also to jeopardize the smaller sports programs that train and populate the American Olympic team.

Originally published: April 7, 2025 at 6:09 a.m.