The House Settlement is approved by a judge, and that is good news for thousands of former NCAA athletes. The NCAA is agreeing to pay $2.8 billion in lost NIL earnings to athletes, per Yahoo Sports. Schools are also chipping in to help cover all the costs, per college sports reporter Ross Dellenger.

NIL stands for name, image and likeness, which allows athletes to make profits while they play for colleges. As a result of the settlement, athletes who played in the last decade will be eligible for the funds.

These back payments are expected to start going out soon. The distribution is determined using a formula to calculate each player's value, per Dellenger.

Most of that $2.8 billion is going to athletes who played football or men's basketball for a power 4 conference school. Those conferences are the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC.

The House Settlement was reached as a result of litigation brought by former NCAA players against the agency, who had not been able to profit in the past from NIL.

In the past, schools could face severe penalties for paying players. Penalties included loss of scholarships, and even the stripping of national championships from a program. That is essentially no more, as players can now make millions from NIL deals.

The NCAA has been under fire by many politicians, fans and others who want to see more guardrails for NIL. NCAA President Charlie Baker has proposed several changes, including giving more structure to how NIL deals can be reached with players. There has been no official changes yet due to those proposals.

The federal government is also looking into NIL. Legislation in Congress would regulate NIL protocols, but no bill has been officially passed in Washington D.C. President Donald Trump has established an NIL and college athletics commission, but no movement has come about yet from that.

It seems that NCAA sports will truly never be the same.