BOISE, Idaho — Local athletes have something to look forward to as a $2.8 billion settlement from the House vs NCAA will soon start paying out to former and current collegiate athletes, coming July 1st. I’m your neighborhood reporter, Alexander Huddleston, speaking with a former wide receiver who played here at Centennial High, who is excited to finally be paid for his time and dedication while at Washington State.
See 2016 Centennial High graduate and former WSU football player react to NCAA finally paying former athletes through $2.8 billion settlement:
$2.8 billion settlement in House vs NCAA to start paying former athletes in July
“As much as the student-athlete’s name was used, it was more of a full-time job being an athlete and trying to balance school on the side,” said former WSU wideout Hayden Harvey.
For years, college athletes have been pushing to get paid for the NCAA’s use of their name, image, and likeness. But it wasn’t until July of 2021 that athletes began seeing their hard work pay off.
Harvey shrugged, saying, “Regardless of who I was at WSU and who any of us were, it’s nice to have some kind of reward at the end of it.”
Hayden Harvey, a 2016 graduate of Centennial High School in West Boise, took his receiving talents up to the Palouse and walked on at Washington State.
“When I first got to WSU, we had NCAA lawyers and they went through about a twenty-page document with us that we had to sign saying that we weren’t going to make a penny off any autographs or any sort of compensation from boosters or anything,” explained the former Cougar.
But that was back then. Now, Harvey is looking to finally take a bite of the NIL pie. As I previously reported back in October, former players sued the NCAA over lost NIL earnings for athletes who played between 2016 and 2021.
READ MORE: Former collegiate athlete excited to benefit from House vs NCAA $2.8 billion settlement
Harvey continued, “I thought about it for a bit, but just decided to put my name into it because I might as well, and I think it’s a good thing to be compensated for playing a Division-1 sport.”
The payout will vary by player, but Harvey is expecting between five and ten thousand dollars.
The NCAA says this settlement will be distributed to the athletes who signed up over the next 10 years.
