By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – As the NCAA enters a new era following the House v. NCAA settlement, new Tennessee Tech Director of Athletics Casey Fox has announced that the University's Department of Athletics will opt into the terms of the settlement starting in the 2025-26 academic year.
"This week, we made the decision for Tennessee Tech to opt in to the NCAA settlement," Fox said. "After carefully reviewing the final terms, we believe this choice is in the best long-term interest of our athletic department.
"The recent finalization of the roster grandfathering provision played a key role in solidifying our decision. By opting in, we position ourselves to better adapt to the evolving collegiate athletics environment, while also creating greater flexibility to leverage opportunities around Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) and potential revenue sharing."
Fox continued, "As college athletics continue to change, we are committed to doing what's best for our student-athletes, our programs and Tennessee Tech University."
Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham agreed that the move was one that benefitted the student-athlete experience.
"Amid the sweeping changes in college athletics, Tech will take advantage of this opportunity to increase our support for student-athletes," Oldham said. "Opting into the settlement opens new conversations and allows us to leverage revenue streams to build stronger athletic programs through well-supported student-athletes."
The House v. NCAA settlement is the culmination of three federal antitrust class action lawsuits brought against the NCAA and the Autonomy Five (A5) conferences – the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conferences. The cases allege that the NCAA's restrictions on the monetization of name, image and likeness (NIL) payments prevented student-athletes from realizing their true market value. This included NIL revenue, broadcast rights and video games.
A settlement was reached on Oct. 7, 2024, and saw final approval on June 6, 2025. Non-defendant institutions – such as those not in the Autonomy Five conference, including Tennessee Tech – had until June 30 to declare their intent to the NCAA on whether they would choose to opt into the settlement. Tech opted in on June 27.
So what changes by opting in? Universities will be able to directly provide additional support to student-athletes in addition to the current benefits with scholarships – tuition, housing, meals, academic awards, health care, etc.
The Settlement sets a uniform internal NIL cap for all schools that choose to opt in equal to 22 percent of the NCAA Division I average media, ticket and scholarship revenue. For 2025-26, that cap for each member institution is approximately $20.5 million and will be recalculated every three years. While this will look different between the Autonomy Five and the mid-major conferences, each institution will be able to decide how to distribute the internal NIL among its sports teams and student-athletes. There is no minimum required distribution.
Internal NIL will allow the University to manage donor support holistically and in a way that allows donors to make these contributions charitably through the Tennessee Tech Athletics Association.
The Settlement also allows third-party NIL payments to student-athletes. Third-party payments from an "affiliated entity" (such as the Golden Eagle Collective) must be analyzed to meet fair market value with a legitimate business purpose. Approved third-party NIL payments will not count toward the internal NIL cap and will be reviewed by an independent clearing house (NIL Go).
One of the terms of the Settlement is that the NCAA membership, including Tech, along with the Autonomy Five conferences, will pay approximately $2.8 billion in damages over a 10-year period to a class of former student-athletes who did not have the opportunity to benefit from their name, image and likeness. These back damages will be paid regardless of opt-in or opt-out status.
The choice to opt in now to the Settlement will trigger roster limits for all NCAA-sponsored sports, but it also provides flexibility over a four-year period that opting in later would not allow. While the roster will be limited, the cap on scholarships has been removed, allowing institutions to decide how many scholarships to award up to the total number of roster sports allotted for each sport.
Photo | Tennessee Tech Communications and Marketing
