The House vs. NCAA settlement was approved last night by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, CA, meaning that universities are now allowed to directly pay their athletes.

These new rulings are set to go into effect on July 1st, and each school will have around $20-$23 million to spend on its athletes.

Now that schools can use their revenue sharing to pay players, this completely shakes up college sports forever. This is certainly the right move for the players, and part of the damages paid by the NCAA in the 10-year, $2.8 billion settlement will go to past collegiate athletes who weren't able to use their name, image, and likeness for financial benefits.

One of the key aspects of this settlement is that universities can allocate their total revenue in any manner they deem fit. Schools like Georgia and Ohio State may put the biggest distribution of any sport into football. But schools like UConn, on the other hand, could put 50% of their total revenue into basketball, which would make the most sense as their football program is essentially an afterthought on campus.

However, Duke is in a really interesting spot in terms of this rule, given how it can disperse its funds in any way it wants. Obviously, Duke is known for its men's basketball program, and it has the greatest chance of landing major transfers or recruits of any team. But the Duke football program may have a case to argue with.

Blue Devil football won nine games under first-year head coach Manny Diaz in 2024, just the third time Duke has won nine games in a season since it joined the ACC in 1953. On top of that, the program signed Tulane transfer quarterback Darian Mensah to a monster two-year, $8 million NIL deal.

There's already a ton of added pressure on Diaz and the program to perform following a great first season and a huge investment in next season's roster, but the approval of this settlement just added to that even more.

Boosters obviously have a lot of faith that Diaz can bring Duke football to places it hasn't gone in a very long time, hence why the program was able to bring in Mensah for one of the biggest deals in college football history, along with bring back some of the program's top defensive contributors from a defense that was one of the best in the country in 2024.

And for the football team to prove it consistently deserves a big chunk of that revenue from the university, it needs to perform with the roster it was given this season. That means a true ACC Championship contender, consistently in the rankings all season, and in contention for a College Football Playoff spot.

If Duke football wins just six or seven games after the major investment that went into the 2025 roster, it's going to hurt the program's case to get a big chunk of that revenue over basketball. But if the Blue Devils can win nine games, be on the cusp of or in the ACC Championship game, and stay in the top 25 rankings for the majority of the season, that's proof that they deserve to keep building and need the funds to do so.