House settlement · Reference
The House v. NCAA settlement lets Division I schools pay athletes directly, replaces scholarship limits with roster limits, and pays former athletes for the NIL money they couldn't earn. Here is how each piece works in 2026-27.
It is the June 6, 2025 court-approved settlement of House v. NCAA and two related antitrust cases against the NCAA and the major conferences. Its rules took effect July 1, 2025 and run for 10 academic years, through June 30, 2035.
Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California approved it. It settled the House, Hubbard and Carter cases together, and a new body, the College Sports Commission, enforces its rules.
Each school can pay its athletes directly up to a yearly cap: $20.5 million in 2025-26 and about $21.58 million in 2026-27, per the College Sports Commission. The CSC expects another 4% increase for 2027-28, then a recalculation every three years.
| Academic year | Cap | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | $20.5M | Year 1: 22% of average shared revenue |
| 2026-27 | $21.58M | College Sports Commission published figure |
| 2027-28 | About $22.4M | HDBND estimate: 2026-27 plus the 4% the CSC expects |
| 2028-29 | Recalculated | From the latest revenue reports |
You'll also see $21.3 million quoted for 2026-27. That is the 2025-26 cap of $20.5 million plus the settlement's standard 4% increase, which outlets used before the CSC published its figure. The CSC's figure, about $21.58 million, is the one that governs.
Model how a school might split its pool across sports with the revenue share calculator.
The cap is 22% of average shared revenue: eight categories of athletics revenue, such as media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships, totaled across every Power Five school plus Notre Dame and divided by the number of schools. It rises 4% in the second and third year of each three-year period.
The settlement recalculates the cap from fresh revenue reports in years 4, 7 and 10. It allows only two exceptions to the 4% step: a new media-rights deal with a built-in increase above 4%, and an early recalculation requested by the athletes' lawyers, which they can do twice.
Direct payments from the school count, including NIL payments the school routes through a partner, plus up to $2.5 million of new scholarship money above the old limits and up to $2.5 million of academic awards. Third-party NIL deals don't count, even ones the school helped arrange.
| Counts against the cap | Doesn't count |
|---|---|
| Direct school payments to athletes, including through a school's designee or contractor | Third-party NIL deals, including ones the school arranged |
| Up to $2.5M of athletics aid above the 2024-25 scholarship limits | Scholarships at the old limits, housing and most other benefits |
| Up to $2.5M of Alston academic awards | Student Assistance Fund money and benefits from third parties |
A school that goes over the cap has the excess counted against the next year's cap, on top of any penalty. For 2026-27 only, an overage caused by new scholarships is fined 20 cents per dollar instead. Schools report every payment in the CSC's CAPS system within five business days.
Third-party NIL deals of $600 or more go to NIL Go for review instead.
Schools that take part no longer have NCAA scholarship limits. Instead each sport has a roster limit, such as 105 in football and 15 in basketball, and a school may give a full or partial scholarship to everyone on the roster.
| Sport | Roster limit |
|---|---|
| Football | 105 |
| Men's and women's basketball | 15 |
| Baseball | 34 |
| Softball | 25 |
| Men's and women's soccer | 28 |
| Men's and women's volleyball | 18 |
| Men's and women's swimming and diving | 30 |
| Men's and women's track and field (indoor and outdoor) | 45 |
| Men's and women's golf | 9 |
| Women's rowing | 68 |
Athletes who would have been cut when the limits arrived were protected as "designated student-athletes": they can keep practicing and competing without counting toward the limit, and no then-current athlete could lose a scholarship because of them. A conference may set lower limits, but not below a sport's old scholarship limit.
Division I athletes who were first eligible between June 15, 2016 and September 15, 2024 share about $2.78 billion in damages over the settlement's 10 years. Payments are on hold while appeals over how the money was split between men and women are pending.
Claims are grouped into three classes: Power Five football and men's basketball players on full scholarships, Power Five women's basketball players on full scholarships, and everyone else in Division I. The athletes' lawyers handle the payments, not the CSC.
The College Sports Commission, led by CEO Bryan Seeley, enforces roster limits, revenue sharing and NIL deals. It runs CAPS for schools' payments and rosters, NIL Go for third-party deals, and an anonymous tipline, and it can make athletes ineligible and penalize schools.
The NCAA still runs playing rules, academic eligibility, sports betting rules and the rest of college sports.
Power Five schools are bound by the settlement. Every other Division I school decides each year, by May 1, whether to opt in. 319 of 365 Division I schools opted in for 2025-26, and in that first year 307 of them paid 34,915 athletes a combined $1.77 billion.
68 schools reached the $20.5 million cap or came within 5% of it in 2025-26.
Congress may raise the cap. The Protect College Sports Act, which the Senate passed 77 to 22 on September 28, 2026, would let schools spend up to $22.5 million more a year to keep current players, plus up to $5 million for women's and Olympic sports. The House hasn't voted, and the bill dies if it doesn't pass by January 3, 2027.