As the year 2024 draws to a close, the long-held concept of the “amateur athlete” in college sports is finally coming to an end. College athletics, particularly in football and basketball, have been a multibillion-dollar industry for years, with the idea of amateur athletes playing purely for pride and scholarships rapidly fading into history. The upcoming changes in 2025 will mark the final step of a transformation that began in 2021 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that college players could profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). This ruling laid the foundation for the current wave of change that is now set to redefine college sports as we know them.
While the concept of amateurism once seemed deeply ingrained in college athletics, the reality has been far different for some time. The money flowing into major college sports—particularly football and basketball—has continued to rise, both through legitimate revenue and under-the-table deals. Now, with the final approval of a landmark $2.8 billion lawsuit settlement expected in April 2025, athletes will begin receiving direct payments from their schools, a development that once seemed unimaginable. The settlement will create a new, direct form of compensation for college players, replacing the current system where players receive funding through third-party collectives, such as booster-funded groups.
The growing trend toward paying college athletes has created new questions about fairness, equity, and the future of college sports. The most obvious change is the introduction of revenue sharing, where colleges themselves will pay athletes directly for their contributions to athletic programs. This shift is set to bring greater transparency and regulation to the current system, which is already fragmented with state laws, school-specific rules, and various legal loopholes. According to Jeff Kessler, the plaintiff’s attorney for the settlement, the new system of school payments will only help to improve the environment, providing athletes with a clearer and more consistent path to compensation.
Yet, for all the talk about the importance of fair pay, the realities of these new compensation systems are starting to surface. The vast differences in the earnings of athletes across different sports are startling. Data collected by the NCAA in 2024 showed that football and basketball players were averaging nearly $38,000 in NIL earnings. However, the median earnings for athletes, which reflects the middle point of the earnings spectrum, was just $1,328. This massive gap illustrates the concentration of wealth at the top of college sports, with only a small number of star athletes reaping the lion’s share of the rewards. As a result, less prominent athletes and those in non-revenue sports are left struggling to make any real money from NIL deals.
A closer look at the distribution of NIL earnings also reveals a troubling gender disparity. Men, particularly in football and basketball, are earning far more than their female counterparts. On average, women’s sports athletes earned just $8,624 in NIL compensation, compared to $33,321 for male athletes. For women’s basketball players, this gap is even starker, with their average NIL earnings at only $11,500 compared to men’s basketball players, who earned an average of $56,000. The lack of equity in NIL compensation raises questions about whether schools can meet their obligations under Title IX, which mandates equal treatment for male and female athletes in areas like scholarships and financial aid.
Despite the financial disparities, the most significant changes in college sports lie ahead. Athletes are now pushing for more transparency and the creation of a players’ association that would help regulate the NIL system, offering more oversight in how deals are made and ensuring athletes are receiving fair compensation. While the NCAA has acknowledged the necessity of paying athletes, it has repeatedly resisted calls to classify them as full-time employees of the schools they represent. This would mean athletes would be entitled to full employment benefits, which could add an enormous financial burden on schools and has sparked a legal battle that many in college sports hope to avoid.
The introduction of direct payments to athletes represents the culmination of years of legal challenges, debates, and mounting pressure to address the growing financial power of college athletics. While it is not without its critics, this shift has been seen by many as a long overdue correction to a system that has long relied on the labor of student-athletes without compensating them in a meaningful way.
This transformation of college sports, however, does not come without its risks. One concern is the impact it could have on non-revenue sports, such as wrestling, swimming, and field hockey, which often serve as the backbone of Olympic athletes in the U.S. With revenue from big-ticket sports now being allocated to high-profile football and basketball players, there is a fear that smaller sports may suffer from cuts or diminished funding. The result could be fewer opportunities for athletes in these sports and a shift away from traditional college athletics in favor of more commercially viable programs.
Another significant concern is the impact on fans. Many college sports fans have always supported their teams because of the romanticized notion that players were competing for pride, not money. The professionalization of college sports could change the dynamics of fan support. As college athletes are paid more like professionals, will fans still care as much about the team? Will the emotional connection between fans and players be diluted by a more transactional relationship between athletes and their schools?
It remains to be seen how fans will respond to a more professionalized model of college sports, but there is little doubt that we are at the dawn of a new era. As college athletes continue to push for fairer compensation and more recognition for their efforts, it seems the days of amateurism in college sports are firmly behind us. But this is only the beginning. As new regulations, lawsuits, and negotiations unfold, college sports will continue to evolve in ways that many couldn’t have predicted just a few short years ago. What happens next remains to be seen, but one thing is clear—college sports as we know them will never be the same.
