NEW: The NCAA has reached a settlement agreement in its NIL lawsuit with Tennessee

This will permanently allow NIL collectives to negotiate deals with high school and transfer portal recruits before commitments.https://t.co/03IKEQttiK pic.twitter.com/hb3vQzWccy
— On3 (@On3sports) January 31, 2025

With Friday’s settlement, the NCAA severed another blow to its enforcement power. The decision leaves college sports’ governing body nearly powerless over NIL payments until revenue sharing is scheduled to begin July. 1. Corker, who granted the preliminary injunction nearly a year ago, previously wrote that the NCAA was suppressing athletes.

“Without the give and take of a free market, student-athletes simply have no knowledge of their true NIL value,” the judge wrote last February. “It is this suppression of negotiating leverage and the consequential lack of knowledge that harms student-athletes.”