Big-time college sports changed forever today. As of midnight on July 1, Division I schools could pay their athletes directly.
And pay them a lot. As much as $20.5 million per school for 2025-2026, thanks to the settlement of the class action lawsuit House v. NCAA.
Most terms of the agreement — participation, revenue sharing, roster limits, eliminating scholarship limits, NIL oversight, to name a few — took effect today.
Keep in mind these changes apply only to the House defendants — Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Pac-12 Conferences — and Division I schools that opt in to the agreement. Three of Rhode Island’s four DI schools have opted in.
As a result, the quarterback at Ohio State, the linebacker from Georgia, the women’s basketball center at South Carolina and the softball pitcher at Texas Tech could earn $1 million or more directly from their college or university this year.
Basketball players at PC, URI and Bryant will get paychecks this season. Select athletes in football and other sports will get paid as well. That’s in addition to athletic scholarships that cover tuition, room, board, and books, and any name, image and likeness deals individual athletes have negotiated.
Last week, they were amateurs. This week, they are pros.
“Absolutely, they are professionals,” University of Rhode Island athletics director Thorr Bjorn exclaimed when we spoke recently. “You’re getting paid for your craft, you’re a professional.”
That, my friends, is a historic change in the way the National Collegiate Athletic Association has operated for more than a century. Amateurism, the NCAA’s cornerstone, is out. Professionalism is in.
I checked with leaders at PC, URI, Bryant and Brown to learn how they are approaching the dawn of this new era in Division I sports. Here’s what they had to say:
STEVE NAPOLILLO, PROVIDENCE COLLEGE, VICE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
Providence College is committed to maintaining its men’s basketball program at the highest level possible, Napolillo said. That means competing for the Big East championship and NCAA Tournament bids in a transfer portal world where players come and go in search of minutes and money.
“It’s purely become a business to these kids,” he told me. “The Number One attraction for kids is how much you can pay them. Ten years ago, it used to be facilities. Who had the nicest facilities.”
Napolillo expects Big East schools to invest between $4 million and $16 million each in men’s basketball this season. He would not say how much PC is budgeting but did say “Our goal is to be in the top tier in the Big East.”
Also, PC will direct payments to women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey and cross-country and track, he said.
“Men’s ice hockey wants to win a national championship every year, and they bring in revenue. And Ray Treacy is the greatest [cross-country and track] coach in the country, and we’re going to invest in that program while he’s winning championships.”
The PC payroll will come from all external resources like fundraising, ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, and collectives. Given the millions needed to be competitive, the college itself will have to chip in.
“The goal is always to try to cover it from external resources so you’re not putting any financial stress on the institution,” Napolillo said.
As it has been since the famous NIT championship era of the early 1960s, men’s basketball remains the face of Providence College. “When we’re successful in men’s basketball, the branding and publicity impact every level of the institution,” he said.
The program generates about $30 million per year in revenue and, according to studies PC has commissioned, accounts for about $100 million annually for the city and the state.
THORR BJORN, UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND, VICE PRESIDENT, DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
As a member of the Coastal Athletic Association for football and the Atlantic-10 Conference for every other sport, the University of Rhode Island opted in to the House settlement last March.
“We just felt that provided us with the most flexibility to deal with [Name, Image and Likeness deals],” he said. “We’ve worked with outside legal counsel on putting together contracts and term sheets for our student-athletes receiving NIL payments, which has been really helpful. Everybody that is part of this up to this point is signed and ready to go.”
Men’s basketball is the primary focus at URI, with women’s basketball and football also in the mix.
Bjorn and his team have focused on soliciting donations directly to the university so donors can receive tax benefits.
“One of the challenges we’ve had with outside collectives the last two years is we’ve had some really generous donors, but they’re just writing checks with no tax benefit. Now, people can write a check to the URI Foundation, and we can deal with in-house payments that way,” he said.
Colleges had no oversight over outside collectives that funneled money to athletes. Now NIL payments over $600 must be reviewed by an independent commission.
Bjorn would not disclose how much URI will spend on men’s basketball but did say it will be in the middle of the A-10 pack.
BILL SMITH, BRYANT UNIVERSITY, VICE PRESIDENT OF ATHLETICS AND RECREATION
Bryant was a last-minute opt-in to the House settlement because of mandated roster limits to take effect immediately. Football, for example, was to be capped at 105 players. each eligible for a scholarship. Bryant, which relies on sports teams for overall enrollment figures, has 140 football players on the roster. Men’s and women’s lacrosse and men’s soccer are among other teams exceeding the new roster limits.
“It was going to be a hefty cost for us as a university to immediately cut to 105 roster spots. That would just be terrible,” Smith said.
Bryant has a junior varsity program that the players love, he said. Cutting about 40 spots would wipe that out.
There was enough pushback that the NCAA modified the roster measure to allow a school three years to get down to 105 football players.
“We were pretty loud about it in the East,” Smith said. “It’s not the right thing to do. Those 40 kids are all good students. They’re not on athletic scholarships. It’s the wrong thing to have them make a choice. Do they stay at Bryant, where they love the school, love the education and love playing football, or do you have them go someplace else?”
The NCAA has adopted a different measure for other sports to reach lower roster limits. As current athletes graduate or exhaust their eligibility, their roster spot will disappear.
“We all knew it was going to be complicated, but I never would have imagined this wrinkle with being over the cap,” Smith said.
He added that “revenue sharing makes a whole lot of sense to us and not having to go through the outside collectives.”
Men’s and women’s basketball will receive most of the revenue sharing. Selected athletes in other sports will receive income.
“It’s not a lot of money, but it allows us to be competitive in our conferences. CAA for football and America East for men’s and women’s basketball.”
GRACE CALHOUN, BROWN UNIVERSITY, VICE PRESIDENT FOR ATHLETICS AND RECREATION
The Ivy League last January opted out of the House settlement. As a result, the eight institutions will continue to follow existing NCAA rules and regulations and not have to scramble to pay their athletes to play.
“As you know, the Ivy League has historically been an amateur model. We will always be grounded in education first, and therefore, revenue sharing is just not consistent with our philosophy,” she said in a brief phone call.
“We continue to have high confidence that the Ivy League will be a super attractive and competitive conference as we historically have been. One thing I always add to that is so many don’t realize how competitive we’ve been across the board: If you look at all sport rankings, for the last number of years we were the fifth-most competitive conference and fifth-most represented in the Summer Olympics, and other measures that really show our competitive success. We’re not expecting that to change.”
She mentioned six Ivy teams in the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships, Cornell winning the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship and three Ivy teams in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Four years ago, Calhoun chaired a task force on the NIL issue and said that nobody at the time could have envisioned direct pay for play.
“We really stand as a conference where we stood four years ago, that we think the ability for student athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness like any other student could is a really good thing when they find those opportunities,” she said. “[But] our model will continue to be one that first informs and promotes the student-athlete’s education.”
