A proposed $2.8 billion settlement between the NCAA and players in a class-action lawsuit announced last week, if approved by a judge, would for the first time allow schools to directly pay students for playing sports.
But this is just the latest chapter in a history of college sports that involves questions of wealth, talent and who benefits. The question of how sports fit into higher education has been around for more than a century and has become more complicated as college sports have transformed into multi-billion-dollar businesses that serve as the face of their universities.
Here's a look at what's changed over the years, and what's stayed the same.
March 31, 1906
The NCAA, then known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, was founded with one of its missions being to protect young athletes amid widespread protests over the number of deaths and injuries in football. Among the problems it cited was that “at the college level, players who are not enrolled at a school are often hired and placed on rosters.”
March 1939
The NCAA is running a men's basketball tournament run by the National Basketball Coaches Association to rival a prestigious tournament run by another organization, the National Invitation Tournament. The new eight-team event generated a net loss of $2,531. The following year, it reported a profit of about $9,500.
January 10, 1948
The NCAA formally adopted a code of conduct known as the Sanity Code, which severely limits financial aid for athletes, including a ban on scholarships based primarily on athletic ability. By requiring member schools to comply with its rules, the NCAA has moved from an advisory body to one with regulatory powers.
January 12, 1951
Following criticism of loopholes and schools not following the rules, the NCAA repealed the integrity code and returned control over player aid to conferences and individual schools.
June 6, 1952
The NCAA and NBC have agreed to a one-year, $1.1 million deal to televise college football games, making the NCAA the sole negotiating agent for football television rights for the next 31 years.
November 4, 1952
For the first time, the NCAA has suspended the University of Kentucky men's basketball team for the entire season for rules violations that included paying players.
January 20, 1968
In front of more than 52,000 fans at the Astrodome and millions more in primetime, the University of Houston men's basketball team ended UCLA's 47-game winning streak, 71-69. TVS paid $27,000 for the rights. A year later, NBC paid more than $500,000 for the rights to broadcast the NCAA Tournament final.
1977
Sonny Vaccaro, a basketball promoter who works for Nike, has signed a fledgling shoe company with several college coaches for what he later estimated to be between $10,000 and $15,000. As part of the deal, the coaches would be provided with their players' shoes.
June 27, 1984
The Supreme Court has invalidated the NCAA's monopoly control over college football television broadcasts. The decision in NCAA v. University of Oklahoma Board of Regents allowed conferences and universities to negotiate their own television rights and removed limitations on the number of times they could appear on television.
July 20, 1984
ABC and the College Football Association, a group of more than 60 colleges and universities, agreed to a deal worth an estimated $10 million to broadcast 20 prime-time games that fall.
March 1996
ESPN airs the women's basketball Final Four exclusively for the first time. Seven years later, ESPN2 airs all 63 games of the NCAA women's basketball tournament.
June 26, 2012
Conference leaders and university presidents announced a four-team football playoff would replace the Bowl Championship Series after the regular season in 2014. An initial deal with ESPN to televise the playoffs was later estimated to bring in a staggering $5.6 billion in revenue.
April 2014
University of Connecticut men's basketball player Shabazz Napier told reporters during the Final Four that he sometimes goes to bed hungry after the NCAA soon lifted restrictions on the amount of food schools can provide to players.
August 8, 2014
Former UCLA basketball player of the year Ed O'Bannon successfully sued the NCAA for not paying him for the commercial use of his likeness in a popular video game. This was the first time that a former college athlete has won the right to compensation for what are known as name, image and likeness rights. The ruling allows universities to compensate athletes in the form of trust funds that can be accessed after they graduate.
August 17, 2015
The National Labor Relations Board has rejected a bid by Northwestern University football players to unionize, refusing to exercise jurisdiction over the case after a regional director ruled the players were employees.
October 30, 2015
The University of Texas agrees to a 15-year, $250 million extension to its apparel deal with Nike, the largest university apparel deal in college sports history, and about seven months later, UCLA signs a $280 million deal with Under Armour.
September 10, 2019
The nonprofit Women's Sports Foundation asserts that 80 to 90 percent of sports schools are not in compliance with Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. This includes areas such as participation, scholarships and access to training and facilities, the group claims.
2019
California's Fair Pay to Play Act passed, making the state the first to ban the NCAA from paying players name, image and likeness fees after 2023. Other states quickly followed suit, but with earlier implementation dates.
June 21, 2021
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the case, National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, upholding a lower court ruling that the NCAA must award non-cash education benefits such as computers and tutoring services. The NCAA is allowed to set a cap on those benefits, however, at $5,980 per academic year. Some schools argued they couldn't afford to pay Alston in full and that it would hurt their recruiting prospects.
July 1, 2021
Under pressure from the Justice Department and state legislatures, the NCAA began allowing athletes to profit from their fame, allowing them to receive compensation for the use of their name, image and likeness.
July 2021
The University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas announced that they would leave the Big 12 Conference in the coming years to join the Southeastern Conference, which had more lucrative television contracts. The move set off a wave of football television contract realignment. The following year, UCLA and the University of Southern California announced they would leave the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten. Eventually, eight more schools left the Pac-12.
2022
When athletes were allowed to make money from endorsement deals, the NCAA offered few guidelines beyond barring schools from brokering the deals. This led to sponsorship associations running sponsorship groups that pooled money and funneled it to players, creating a pay-for-play system in sports where associations, especially in football and men's basketball, offered more than $1 million to get players to transfer to their schools.
October 2022
Louisiana State University gymnast Olivia Dunn is the top-earning female college athlete in name, image and likeness endorsements, valued at $2.4 million, according to tracking site On3. Still, it's estimated that more than 90 percent of name, image and likeness endorsement revenue goes to men.
March 5, 2024
The Dartmouth College men's basketball team voted to establish the nation's first unionized college sports program, one month after National Labor Relations Board officials ruled that team members are employees of the university.
January 4, 2024
The NCAA and ESPN agreed to an eight-year, $920 million deal in which the network retained exclusive broadcast rights to the women's basketball tournament and 39 other men's and women's championships. Some have argued that it would have made more money by selling the women's tournament separately, but the NCAA said it wanted to ensure a platform for its less popular sports.
May 23, 2024
The NCAA and the major conferences announced they had agreed to a $2.8 billion settlement in a class-action lawsuit that, if approved by a judge, would provide former players with back wages for lost licensing opportunities and allow for a revenue-sharing plan that could begin in the fall of 2025.