Just In: Alabama Agrees to Pay Players Under Groundbreaking House Settlement

A landmark day is approaching for Alabama football and college athletics as a whole. Beginning July 1, Alabama — along with the rest of Division I — will be permitted to directly compensate its athletes, thanks to the recently approved House v. NCAA settlement.

Under the agreement, Alabama can distribute payments through a revenue-sharing model, with the 2025 limit projected around $20.5 million. Athletic director Greg Byrne confirmed the school plans to fully participate.

“This is one of the most transformative moments in college sports,” Byrne said in a social media post Saturday. “We’ve been preparing for this shift and making strategic decisions to ensure long-term success. The settlement brings a sense of stability that the industry sorely needs.”

Byrne also noted that Alabama will expand scholarship offerings and fully implement revenue sharing to supplement the already extensive resources available to student-athletes.

The revenue-sharing pool, which will be recalculated annually for the next decade, will represent 22% of the average revenue from ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC schools. This includes income from media rights, ticket sales, and sponsorships.

Football players at SEC schools are expected to receive the largest share of these funds, and Alabama is likely to follow that trend. However, specific allocations — especially among basketball and other sports — haven’t been disclosed.

In an interview with ESPN, Byrne emphasized the importance of all athletic programs: “I tell our coaches, ‘We don’t support a sport at Alabama just for the sake of it.’”

Importantly, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) opportunities remain intact under the new system. Alabama’s NIL collective, Yea Alabama, will continue operations.

“Our athletes still benefit from Yea Alabama, which focuses on meaningful NIL deals that align with both the school’s and the athlete’s brand,” Byrne added. He also mentioned that Crimson Tide Sports Marketing and Learfield will maintain efforts to connect athletes with local and national NIL deals.

A new enforcement agency, managed by Deloitte, will now oversee third-party NIL payments over $600. The agency will evaluate these deals based on payer connections, legitimate business intent, and reasonable market value — aiming to weed out booster-funded payments with no true commercial basis. Notably, NIL money will not be counted against the revenue-sharing limit.