News & Insights

College Sports’ Multibillion-Dollar House Settlement Has Been Approved, But What Happens Now?

As college sports enter a transformative period with the official rollout of revenue sharing and stricter Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) enforcement, Archer attorney Patrick Afriyie, a former NFL and Colgate football player spoke to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the legal and institutional implications of this shift. The NIL clearinghouse, which opened June 11, sets off a 30-day window for athletes to log qualifying endorsement deals. By July 1, the revenue-sharing era begins, officially marking a new chapter in college athletics where the traditional amateur model is being replaced by a more professionalized system. “There’s just been a major change,” Patrick told the Post-Gazette. “I think when the NCAA lost the lawsuit that allowed players to start capitalizing on their [NIL], that was when they started to lose a lot of their control that they've had and relied upon for decades.” He notes that the NCAA’s power structure, once built on the principle of amateurism, has been fundamentally eroded, with schools now obligated to navigate a regulatory environment shaped by new compliance systems like the College Sports Commission (CSC) and NIL Go, the digital platform for deal oversight. ...read more