NCAA Settlement Kicks Off New Era For Student-Athlete NIL

Manatt Entertainment Partner , Litigation Partner , Entertainment Partner , Corporate and Finance Associate and Litigation Associate wrote an article for Law360 discussing a landmark settlement surrounding student-athlete name, image and likeness (NIL) rights and its impact on the future of the NIL landscape.

The authors discussed how the “House Settlement” comes after 15 years of litigation between a class of Division 1 college athletes and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its five major conferences, securing roughly $2.8 billion in damages for college athletes that were denied compensation for their NIL and athletic performance. The settlement marks a major development in college athletics that now permits D-1 schools to share their future annual athletics revenue with college athletes, and enables universities to directly compensate and share revenue with their athletes, among other components.

“The House Settlement presents new developments in the evolving college athletics landscape, and one development may open new opportunities for athletic programs and college athletes to grow and flourish as prior NCAA restrictions are lifted. That said, there is no one approach to addressing the ongoing changes to the college athletics landscape and NIL, and universities and institutions should develop plans and policies that best align with their particular mission, needs and obligations,” the authors wrote.

Read the full Law360 article .