Judge approves landmark college salary cap after deal agreed by NCAA

In just a few weeks’ time - July 1 - colleges will be able to start making direct payments to athletes, breaking from a long-standing tradition in college sports.

The change is the result of a major effort from the House of Representatives that comprised of three separate federal antitrust lawsuits. The House alleged that the NCAA’s unwillingness to pay college athletes represented an illegal limitation of earnings.

The NCAA has agreed a multi-billion dollar payment to athletes, which includes nearly $2.8 billion in back payments to unpaid athletes dating back to 2016.

The NCAA settlement was approved on Friday by Judge Caludia Wilken, marking the next step from amateurism to professionalism in college sports. In 2021 a landmark change allowed college athletes to make money via ‘Name, Image and Likeness’ (NIL) deals, taking money from third-parties.

However the latest change goes further still, allowing colleges to incentive top prospects by offering them a formal salary for the first time. The agreement forwarded by the NCAA includes a proposal to implement a salary cap of around $20.5 million per school for the 2025/26 per season.

That figure will be paid by the school’s athletic department but it represents a fairly modest total outlay. At top sports colleges a single program can generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the school. The $20.5 million maximum total spend on player salaries is relatively small.

Nevertheless it’s a landmark moment for the world of college sports and one that will likely see salaries increased in the years to come. But just as importantly it’s an opportunity for past college athletes, the vast majority of whom will never sign a professional contract, to recoup some lost earnings.

“It’s historic,” former college basketball star Sedona Prince told ESPN. “It seemed like this crazy, outlandish idea at the time of what college athletics could and should be like. It was a difficult process at times ... but it’s going to change millions of lives for the better.”

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