# College Athletes Now Claiming Slice of $2.8B NCAA Payout

The floodgates just opened: former college athletes can start filing claims for what could be a life-changing payout. We're talking $2.8 billion total—money that was supposed to go to them all along for letting schools profit off their name, image, and likeness.

**The Numbers That Matter:**
- Football/basketball players (Power Five): averaging $135K per athlete
- Women's basketball (Power Five): averaging $35K per claim
- Other Division I athletes: ranging from a few hundred to low thousands
- Highest single payout possible: $1.85 million (likely elite football positions)
- Eligible athletes: 400,000+ across all divisions

**Why Football's Getting Fat Stacks:**
Turns out football and basketball drive media revenue for conferences. Other sports? They don't move the needle on TV contracts, so athletes in those sports get smaller slices. Position matters too—quarterbacks will probably outearning running backs thanks to NFL salary benchmarking.

**Timeline Reality Check:**
- Athletes won't know exact payout amounts until December at earliest
- Money gets distributed annually over up to 10 years
- Final approval hearing scheduled April 7 (appeals likely after that)
- Claims process started this Friday

**The Plot Twist:**
This settlement is just the warm-up act. The real game-changer is the revenue-sharing model going forward—schools can now spend up to $22M annually on athlete compensation starting next summer. Roughly 70 schools could hit that cap immediately.

**Bottom Line:**
Former athletes like Saquon Barkley (PSU to NFL star) are looking at serious checks. But for walk-ons and Olympic sport athletes who never went pro? Even a few thousand bucks could be transformative. The NCAA just got forced to admit college sports is a business—and athletes finally get paid like it.