Capital Economy, Business and Finance
The organisation that runs college athletics in the US, the NCAA, has agreed to pay former college athletes $2.8 billion to settle lawsuits brought by current and former students who were unable to profit from their image rights before a 2020 rule change. The bigger shift: the settlement paves the way for colleges to pay student athletes directly. The NCAA has fought hard to prevent paying students to maintain college sports’ “amateur” status. But America’s largest sports programme, Ohio State, took in more than $250 million last year; its stadium can hold 102,780 fans – three thousand more than Europe’s largest, Camp Nou; and its American football coach is paid $9.5 million a year. Amateur is a stretch. Experts say the saga is far from over. Another class action lawsuit is in the works. No one is quite sure how or how much athletes will end up being paid – but it won’t be nothing.