The NCAA and its member schools have agreed to pay $2.8 billion in damages to former players to settle three antitrust lawsuits pertaining to past restrictions on player compensation. The settlement aims to compensate former players for opportunities they lost due to the NCAA’s “amateur model” that prohibited Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals and player revenue sharing. The agreement also paves the way for conferences to share up to $20 million of revenue per year with current and future players.

The exact terms of the settlement haven’t been finalized and could take months to negotiate and gain final approval from the court. Even after it’s approved, the settlement could face appeals and further legal challenges including Title IX liability, potentially delaying its implementation until late next year.

Additionally, the settlement will not protect the NCAA from other antitrust lawsuits, nor will it resolve the debate over whether college athletes are employees with rights to unionize. In recent years, the NCAA and its member schools have actively lobbied Congress to pass antitrust exemptions for college sports, to no avail. Perhaps this landmark settlement will be a catalyst to change that.