With the House settlement expected to pass soon, schools will soon have an NIL cap of $20.5 million they can directly spend on their student athletes across various athletics programs, even though third-party NIL deals can still happen.Apparently, the SEC wanted to put a cap on how much money schools could spend on each program, but Kentucky reportedly led the charge against that in hopes of not having a cap on how much money it could spend on the men’s basketball team. That push has led to the SEC dropping the cap limit per sport, at least for the 2025-26 sports calendar year.
This, according to Yahoo Sports reporter Ross Dellenger (via The Matt Jones Show).
“You’re not going to be surprised by this, but Kentucky did not — and some others too — but Kentucky basketball specifically was a pretty big voice in the room to make sure that those standards weren’t set as a policy because Kentucky, obviously, wants to spend more [on basketball],” said Dellenger via KSR.So, for now, Kentucky will be able to spend as much as it wants on each program, though the school has yet to reveal a plan for how the money will be shared across all of its athletics programs.
The NCAA House settlement is set to go into effect on July 1st pending final approval by Judge Claudia Wilken.
