The world of college sports that we woke up to on Friday, June 6th, has changed drastically in just 24 hours.
That's because on Friday evening, the news broke that Judge Claudia Wilken in California approved the NCAA House settlement that has been a consistent source of controversy and uncertainty in the world of college athletics. The agreement, which settles a trio of antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and power conferences filed by several different athletes, sets forth a system where schools can share revenue with their student-athletes and new enforcement mechanisms to regulate how athletes are compensated.
It will also allow $2.8 billion in back pay to be distributed to former athletes since 2016 who missed their opportunities at cashing in on the era of college athletes getting paid. A formula will be used to determine the value of each player, and $2.3 billion of that money will go to former Power 4 football and men's basketball athletes.
So how will this all play out, and how does it affect the teams suiting up for the West Virginia Mountaineers? Let's take a deep dive.
The Crying Over NIL Regulation Can (Hopefully) Be Put To Rest
One of my least favorite consequences of the NIL era has been listening to fans across the sport whine about players having too much freedom, that something needs to be done. Not because they're wrong, per se -- a system like the unregulated NIL landscape we've functioned in as of late is unsustainable. But it irked me more as it was often used as a cover for folks who miss the "good old days" of athlete exploitation to argue we need to bring all of the sport's recent changes to a halt.
It's typically a refrain I'd hear across WVU's fanbase when rumors would abound that programs like Alabama and Ole Miss were crossing the line into "tampering" with West Virginia stars such as Zach Frazier or Aubrey Burks, or in cases where standouts such as Hudson Clement or Akheem Mesidor would begin to understand their monetary value and seek out a bigger NIL payday.
Hopefully, that can now all be put to rest with the new rules in place. Player payments can now be distributed each year, and institutions can allocate up to 22% of the average revenue among schools in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC from media rights, ticket sales, and sponsorships , which is known as the "revenue sharing cap." Individual schools can choose whether or not they want to opt in to this system.
That number is estimated to be $20.5 million across each athletic department in 2025-2026, with the cap set to increase 4% over the next two seasons before being re-evaluated every three years for the duration of the agreement. This money can be received by the athletes in addition to athletic scholarships, third-party NIL earnings, and other educational perks.
But it will all be overseen by a new entity known as the College Sports Commission (CSC), who will use a management system known as College Athlete Payment System (CAPS) to monitor the revenue sharing cap and an online clearinghouse known as NIL GO to monitor third-party NIL deals.
Institutions that opt in to revenue sharing are required to use CAPS to manage and report their revenue sharing payments, while the NIL Go clearinghouse will "determine whether third-party NIL deals are made with the purpose of using a student-athlete’s NIL for a valid business purpose and do not exceed a reasonable range of compensation." These NIL deals can be rejected if the clearinghouse doesn't find them to meet the above requirements.
The idea behind this is to bring the desired regulation to the NIL landscape and to return that system to its intended use of a payer getting paid for the use of his or her likeness, while also finding a way for schools themselves to compensate players fairly for the revenue they bring an institution while putting their bodies and health on the line. And now that NIL will be regulated and players are getting money through a fair and equitable system, we can all stop lamenting on how the sport has been ruined. correct?
Roster Limits Are (Sort Of) Here
West Virginia fans who followed the football program through its 2025 spring practice sessions certainly heard head coach Rich Rodriguez discuss how the stricter roster limits that were laid out in the initial proposed House settlement would cause him to cut a ton of athletes he'd like to keep -- and with the team's spring practice sessions ending before Judge Wilken weighed in on the matter, the team did see an exodus of players to the transfer portal, with many likely wanting to stay aboard but being cut to meet the limits.
But Wilken did weigh in eventually, refusing to approve the settlement without changes to the roster limits -- she argued a "grandfather clause" was needed in a strikingly similar manner to what Rodriguez had been stumping for all spring, and such a clause was included in the final settlement. So roster limits will still be in place -- 105 in football, 15 in basketball, and 34 in baseball -- and scholarship limits have been eliminated, but players from last season's roster can be "grandfathered in" outside of those limits.
Now, programs can mark certain student-athletes as "designated" student-athletes that can remain despite roster limits, ensuring even more student athletes who were guaranteed a roster spot in recent years don't have it suddenly stripped away, despite coaches and players not wanting to part ways. These players must be designated by July 6th, 2025, and roster limits outside the "designated" athletes must be met by the first day of competition (or by December 1st for sports that do not start competition by that date).
How This Effects The West Virginia Mountaineers
The first thing to know is that while several schools may choose to opt out of participating in this new system, including some power conference programs, West Virginia is committed to shifting with the landscape and joining the revenue sharing program.
In fact, the man tasked with leading WVU's athletic department into this new era -- West Virginia Athletic Director Wren Baker -- talked during the coaching search that led to the hiring of Rodriguez last winter that he expects his institution to be "at or near" the revenue sharing cap.
“We do expect to be at or near the full participation in rev [revenue] share. Once we determine that football number, there’s a substantial amount of rev share,” Baker said. “That’s a big part of the job now. It wasn’t a few years ago, but understanding how to use what is in essence some kind of salary cap is a really important part of what you want.”
He's also optimistic about how this new system can help potentially level the playing field and help schools like West Virginia compete a bit more equitably against the blue bloods in football and basketball that bring heftier financial resources to the table than the Mountaineers might have. That might truly be the biggest way this change affects West Virginia when it comes to on-field competition.
“It puts us in the best possible scenario that we’ve been in a long time to be able to compete,” Baker said. “Our fans are supporters. Businesses have been tremendous. I’ve been here two years, but it’s been over three academic years. When you look at our overall NIL, we’ve seen that budget pretty much double three consecutive years. NIL wise, we were 11th or 12th in terms of the Big 12. It’s not public information, but that’s from calling around and from what I can gather."
"One thing that the new cap establishes is a ceiling, and there’s a reporting structure where you have to report what you’re doing. I believe that’s going to equalize the playing field much more than it’s been the past couple years.”
On the subject of roster limits, the settlement took a bit too long to make a decision to impact West Virginia how Rodriguez likely would have wanted. New roster limits most heavily affect football -- schools can offer scholarships to 20 more players than before, but the new limits of 105 total players are 23 athletes less than the average size of a D1 football roster -- and many of those players who Rodriguez might have wanted to keep were gone before it was determined there would be a "grandfather clause" option.
It may allow for WVU to bring in a few extra transfers as they can "designate" some returning athletes, but it seems, for the most part, Rodriguez has closed the book on roster acquisition this offseason.
One thing that will hopefully please programs such as West Virginia is that the new system could help bring an end to the excessive levels of tampering and the ability of programs with more financial resources to snag away the best talents from smaller programs. There is a cap on revenue sharing, drastic changes to NIL have been made that should heavily cut down on "pay-to-play" NIL deals, and a commission is in place with systems to monitor and regulate both of those facets of the settlement and enforce penalties for violations.
Programs will still obviously go after top-level talents from smaller programs who are chasing a bigger payday, and no unique system is in place to specifically combat tampering yet. But a more level financial playing field and the significant reformation of NIL will hopefully make it a bit less easy for a team to dangle a big contract in front of another program's star quarterback in secret -- everything must now be reported, and an institution is in place with the sole job of monitoring the payment of these athletes.
And while WVU isn't in a large metro market, being the only Power 4 program in the state could provide unique NIL opportunities with businesses across the entire state of West Virginia, providing an expanse of opportunities that might not be possible for every other program in more crowded markets.
“We have some advantages because, being the sole Power Four team in the state and no professional teams…we get a great amount of attention, and our guys get great coverage throughout the state,” Rodriguez said during spring practices.
But this is still an ever-changing landscape in college sports, and there are tons of moving pieces involved -- so much of how this all plays out for West Virginia in the long term remains to be seen.