Do U.S. college athletes get paid?

In the United States college athletics is a multibillion-dollar industry, with ticket sales, merchandise, and broadcast and streaming rights all being major revenue sources for universities. Of course, none of that money comes in without the athletes. But unlike professional athletes, who are often paid millions of dollars a year, student athletes traditionally have received scholarships providing them with a free or reduced-tuition education, but no direct compensation. That practice is likely to change, however, in the wake of an almost $2.8 billion settlement in May 2024 that could have schools paying their athletes as soon as 2025.

Amateurism and early college sports

The tradition of amateurism in college sports goes back centuries. For example, Harvard University—the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, founded in 1636—began interclass sporting competitions in 1780, and the famed Harvard-Yale Regatta of 1852 is considered the first intercollegiate sporting event in the United States. Regional pride, intercollegiate rivalries, and gambling were all factors in the growing popularity of college sports, but as their fan base grew so did the need for an organizational structure for these competitions. In 1906 the Intercollegiate Athletic Association was formed to create and enforce game and player eligibility rules; its name was changed to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1910.

A bedrock principle of the NCAA—the nonpaid status of college athletes—quickly became an issue of debate. Controversy swirled first around college baseball players, who often earned money during the summer months by playing for professional minor league teams, and then spread to college football after World War I, when returning soldiers entered college but played football on weekends for professional teams. “Summer baseball continues to give much trouble in the enforcement of the amateur law,” said NCAA President Palmer E. Pierce in 1924. “The popularity and spread of professional football has introduced another important factor into this upholding of the amateur law. Many prominent college players have been tempted to accept large sums for playing on Sundays or holidays in professional contests.”

Recruiting scandals rock college sports

The notion of the impropriety of college athletes being paid to play on holidays grew quaint as the popularity of collegiate sports exploded in the later part of the 20th century and into the 21st century. Recruiting top athletes meant big money for colleges that could produce winning teams. (Schools with consistently successful programs, particularly in the marquee sports of football and men’s basketball, made money from lucrative contracts to broadcast their games.) Not surprisingly, scandals arose as schools began to offer top recruits payments “under the table,” often in the form of housing, cars, and other benefits.

Southern Methodist University, for example, was caught offering cars and thousands of dollars as enticements to play for its football team in the 1970s and ’80s. A University of Michigan booster was caught giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 1990s to that school’s “Fab Five”—basketball players Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson—leading to sanctions on the university, suspensions for the players, and a vacating of past victories. In 2010 former University of Southern California (USC) football star Reggie Bush had to return his 2005 Heisman Trophy—awarded annually to the best college football player—after an NCAA investigation found that he had illegally received thousands of dollars, a car, and other perks. (It was returned to him in 2024 in recognition of what the Heisman Trust called the “fundamental changes in college athletics” that make athlete compensation “an accepted practice.”) A University of Miami booster, who had been sentenced to prison for fraud, admitted to spending millions of dollars on prostitutes, jewelry, dinners, parties, and gifts of cash for members of the school’s football and basketball teams between 2002 and 2010.

NIL deals and changes to how student-athletes are paid

The financial landscape of collegiate sports began to change in 2021, when the Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Alston that the NCAA’s rules regarding education-related compensation violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. In response to the ruling, the NCAA changed its bylaws to allow students to receive payments for the use of their “names, images and likenesses” (NIL) in product endorsements and social media activities. The NCAA retained its prohibition on the direct payment of athletes by their schools, but the advent of NIL payments provided the first sanctioned compensation of college athletes for their skills and popularity.

In early 2024 USC basketball player Bronny James, the son of NBA great LeBron James, earned in the neighborhood of $5 million from NIL contracts. Gymnast Olivia Dunne of Louisiana State University (LSU) and basketball star Caitlin Clark of the University of Iowa each earned more than $3 million, making them the highest-paid female college athletes. Other highly paid athletes, with earnings topping $1 million, included University of Colorado football player Shedeur Sanders, LSU basketball player Angel Reese, and University of Texas football player Arch Manning. The products the athletes endorse include shoes, energy drinks, insurance, and mobile phones.

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In May 2024 the final obstacle to the direct compensation of student-athletes seemed to crumble when the NCAA and the country’s five biggest sports conferences agreed to pay current and former athletes more than $2.7 billion. The agreement still needs judicial approval, and questions about who will be paid and how, as well as how payments could affect NIL agreements, remain unanswered. Still the new era of student-athlete compensation could begin as early as the fall of 2025.