Answering the 10 Biggest Questions About the NCAA Antitrust Settlement

The future structure of major college sports is starting to come into sharper focus. The proposed details for how college athletes will likely be paid in the future were published Friday evening in an extensive court filing in Northern California. The changes are part of a pending legal settlement that would resolve a trio of looming antitrust lawsuits filed against the NCAA and its five wealthiest conferences. The proposed settlement has two main functions. First, former athletes (dating back to 2016) are eligible to receive part of a $2.78 billion pool of damages. Second, the terms lay out the framework for paying players directly, along with rules designed to try to keep the wealthiest schools from gaining an even larger competitive edge than they already have.