Women Athletes Are Once Again Getting Shortchanged: How a Settlement Reached With the NCAA Benefits Men at Women’s Expense
This holiday season, what do women athletes have to look forward to? Discrimination in the benefits they get as compared to men athletes, the gift that seems to keep on giving—no matter how many times we’ve tried to return it. Don’t get us wrong, significant progress has been made in the days since women and girls were considered “too weak” and as a result, were given second-class treatment as a matter of course compared to men and boys. This includes the passage of Title IX in 1972—the federal statute that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities, including sports. Because of Title IX, enormous progress has been made in closing the gaps between the way women and girls playing school sports have repeatedly been neglected compared to men and boys who were given more opportunities, equipment, and funding to play. However, a settlement recently reached in House v. NCAA threatens to undo much of this progress by grossly undercompensating women athletes in favor of prioritizing payouts from the settlement—at least 90%—to men athletes. That’s why we filed an amicus brief yesterday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of 10 women athletes appealing this settlement as a violation of Title IX.
The lawsuit this settlement involved a group of college athletes suing the NCAA because they argued its rules limiting their ability to get paid for use of their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) were unlawful (an athlete’s NIL rights ensures they can control how their image is used, which means they have a right to get paid for things like appearing in an ad to promote a brand of running shoes). On June 6, 2025, a settlement was reached that would pay the athletes the money they were owed for use of their NIL. But the settlement vastly undercompensated women athletes. Instead of applying Title IX to make sure women and men got equitable pay outs from the settlement, it calculated the amount of money each athlete would get paid based on how much money an athlete’s sport made for their school. The result? Men athletes are slated to receive 90% of the $2.8 billion award—meaning while men could get tens of thousands of dollars, women would get a measly $125 for each year they played.
NWLC’s brief in support of the 10 women appealing this settlement argues that the Ninth Circuit must reject the settlement because it suffers from a fatal flaw: it fails to apply Title IX’s mandate of gender equity to all benefits student athletes receive—including how much athletes should be paid for use of their NIL payments! The history behind the law shows that Congress made it clear: Title IX applies to sports (even ones that make a school money) to ensure that women and girl athletes get the same opportunities and benefits as men and boys. The settlement jeopardizes the progress Title IX has made in the fight for gender equity by destroying women’s opportunities to benefit from playing sports. Participating in sports is a crucial part of a student’s education: research shows it is linked to increased academic performance, mental and physical health benefits, and leadership values that improve one’s career prospects. And the harms of the settlement are growing: other schools have begun to apply the settlement’s inequitable formula to compensate their athletes, resulting in them cutting women’s sports to afford the enormous payments to men athletes. Sidelining women’s opportunities to play and their ability to reap the crucial benefits of athletic participation completely defies the purpose of Title IX.
At NWLC, we’ve been fighting for gender justice since 1972, the year Title IX was passed. We know that any result that perpetuates the second-class treatment of women and girls is deeply unjust. We also know that the struggles the objecting women here are up against are connected to those faced by transgender women and girls under attack. The Trump administration has claimed that banning trans women and girls from playing is necessary to “protect” women and girls, but this is a facade to justify anti-trans hate. Trump has done nothing to combat the real inequities women and girl athletes face, including their opportunities to play, the equipment they are given access to, and the benefits they are provided—just like the discriminatory settlement here. Meanwhile, for decades, NWLC has taken these issues head on by filing complaints and lawsuits to vindicate the rights of women and girl athletes who were denied the same opportunities as men and boys. NWLC doesn’t just get in the game when it’s convenient: we fight for the rights of all women and girls, because we know that the rights of cis women and trans women are not in tension and that when any woman’s rights are threatened, the rights of all women are in danger. Read our brief here.
