But the N.C.A.A.'s $2.8 billion settlement on Thursday night in a class-action antitrust lawsuit represents the heaviest blow and perhaps a decisive one to that system. If approved by a U.S. district judge in California, the settlement would allow for the creation of the first revenue-sharing plan for college athletics, a landmark shift in which schools would directly pay their athletes for playing.
It's both a historic and deeply flawed agreement, said Michael H. LeRoy, a law professor at the University of Illinois. The idea that schools are paying millions of dollars to the people who are selling the TV contracts and filling the seats that's good. But it closes one Pandora's box and opens four or five others.
In recent years, college athletes had already made significant strides in gaining the right to make money for their performances. Three years ago, they were allowed for the first time to individually market their name, image and likeness legally.
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