After over a decade of litigation, a federal judge has signed off on a settlement allowing schools in the power conferences to issue direct revenue-sharing payments to athletes.

Each school can pay out up to $20.5 million a year to start, although most of that money is likely earmarked for just a few sports.

The NCAA was founded on amateurism, but players argued that model was exploiting them in an era when media rights for big-time college sports fetch billions. 

“In football, men’s basketball and now increasingly women’s basketball,” said Maureen Weston, an expert in sports law at Pepperdine. 

Universities use that money to subsidize sports that don’t bring in cash, and now she said they’ll have to reevaluate. 

“How do we fund all of our sports if we are in this feeding frenzy” where it could cost tens of millions to field a competitive football team, Weston asked.

“A really important question that those institutions are facing will be where the money is coming from,” said Amy Privette Perko, CEO of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. 

Some programs are already tightening their belts. “Since the potential new rules were negotiated, more than 37 teams have been dropped” in sports like swimming and diving, men’s volleyball and women’s tennis, Privette Perko said.

She added that the NCAA will face lawsuits from athletes in less lucrative programs — and particularly women athletes — as it’s not yet clear how Title IX gender equity rules apply to revenue sharing.