EdCircuit Staff 
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article included a statistic regarding the number of collegiate sports programs eliminated since 2024 that we were unable to independently verify. After reviewing our sourcing, we updated the article to reflect supported reporting. We regret the error.
The House v. NCAA settlement changed how college sports are paid for, and Olympic sports are absorbing much of the cost. Since the settlement was announced in May 2024, roughly 41 Division I Olympic sports programs had been cut by July 2025, affecting at least 1,000 athletes, according to an estimate by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association reported by Bloomberg Law. More cuts followed in 2026, led by a wave of tennis programs.
Swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball and wrestling rarely sell tickets or television rights. For decades they were paid for by football and men’s basketball, and by the university itself. The settlement asks athletic departments to send millions of dollars a year directly to athletes, and most departments were already spending more than they earned before the first payment was made.
What is the House v. NCAA settlement?
The settlement resolved antitrust lawsuits brought by former college athletes who were barred from sharing in the money their sports generated. Judge Claudia Wilken granted final approval on June 6, 2025. It has three main parts:
- Back pay. Nearly $2.8 billion in damages to former athletes, paid over 10 years.
- Revenue sharing. From July 1, 2025, schools that opt in may pay current athletes directly, up to a cap of about $20.5 million per school in 2025–26. The cap rose to $21.3 million for 2026–27.
- Roster limits. Sport-specific scholarship limits are gone for schools that opt in, replaced by roster limits. A football team, for example, went from 85 scholarships to a roster of 105 players.
A new body created by the power conferences, the College Sports Commission, enforces the cap and reviews athletes’ endorsement deals.
Why are colleges cutting sports programs?
The short answer is that revenue sharing is a new cost placed on budgets that were already losing money. In 2023–24, before any revenue sharing, 94 percent of Division I athletic programs spent more than they generated, and colleges covered the gap with $7.2 billion of their own money, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The NCAA’s own finance report found that in fiscal 2024 only 21 schools in the top football subdivision generated more than they spent.
Since revenue sharing began, Division I schools have moved money toward direct payments in football, basketball and a few other sports, the Associated Press reported. Sports with large rosters, long travel and little income are the first to be reviewed.
The reasons schools give vary, and not every cut is caused by the settlement:
- The settlement’s cost. Cal Poly ended men’s and women’s swimming and diving in March 2025, citing state budget cuts and a $450,000-a-year cost from the settlement.
- Operating costs. The University of Louisiana Monroe dropped women’s tennis in June 2025, citing rising operating and facility costs.
- Conference changes. Grand Canyon cut men’s volleyball in April 2025, noting that no school in its new conference sponsors the sport; the team continues as a club. California Baptist announced in January 2026 that wrestling, men’s golf and men’s swimming and diving would end after the 2025–26 season, ahead of its move to the Big West.
- Competitiveness. Washington State stopped supporting field events such as jumps and throws in June 2025 and shifted its track program toward distance running.
Two widely reported changes are often grouped with these cuts but have other causes. Sonoma State, a Division II school, ended all 11 of its teams because of a campus deficit of nearly $24 million. Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania moved from Division I to Division III and kept all 22 of its teams.
The 2026 tennis cuts
Tennis became the clearest example in spring 2026. Gardner-Webb, Saint Louis University, Illinois State and North Dakota all announced cuts to tennis programs that spring, the AP reported. Saint Louis ended both its men’s and women’s teams effective immediately, affecting 19 athletes.
Arkansas shows how fragile these decisions are. On April 24, 2026, the university announced it would end both tennis programs, which cost about $2.5 million a year, saying college athletics was adapting to “the post-House settlement environment.” Three weeks later it reinstated both teams after donors provided short-term funding. The athletic director said a significant endowment remained the only long-term solution.
What the cuts mean for athletes
When a program ends, athletes have to decide quickly whether to transfer, stay in school without their sport, or stop competing. Most schools honor existing scholarships for athletes who stay, as Cal Poly and Washington State did, but a scholarship does not replace the team. Transferring can mean lost academic credits, new housing costs and, for international athletes, visa questions. Coaches and support staff lose their jobs, and recruits who had committed must start their search again.
The new roster limits have also shrunk teams that were not cut. Georgia Tech, for example, reduced its swimming and diving roster by 19 athletes in April 2025, Bloomberg Law reported.
Why it matters for the U.S. Olympic team
The United States does not run national sports academies the way many countries do. It relies on colleges to train its athletes. At the Paris 2024 Games, 75 percent of U.S. Olympians had competed in college, at schools ranging from NCAA Division I to junior colleges and club programs, according to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Swimming, track and field, volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics all depend on college teams as the step between youth sport and international competition. Fewer college roster spots in those sports mean fewer places for athletes to develop.
Title IX and gender equity
Title IX requires schools to offer men and women equitable athletic opportunities, so cuts to one side often lead to cuts on the other. Because football rosters are large and rarely reduced, schools that cut men’s Olympic sports must keep their remaining programs in balance, and some drop teams for both men and women at once. How Title IX applies to revenue sharing itself is still unsettled. The U.S. Department of Education issued guidance in January 2025 saying such payments should be distributed proportionately, then rescinded it in February 2025. Appeals of the settlement on Title IX grounds are pending.
What comes next
Federal policy is moving. On April 3, 2026, the president signed an executive order calling for revenue-sharing rules that preserve scholarships and opportunities in women’s and Olympic sports. In Congress, the SCORE Act stalled in the House without a floor vote. The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act on September 28, 2026, by a vote of 77 to 22. Its protection for women’s and Olympic sports applies only to schools with at least $50 million in athletic revenue, and the bill still needs House approval.
For athletic directors, the arithmetic has not changed. Revenue sharing rises each year, and most departments already depend on money from their universities. Schools will keep deciding how many varsity sports they can afford, and Olympic sports remain the most exposed. For families of high school athletes in those sports, it is worth asking a college recruiter directly how the program is funded and whether it has been reviewed since the settlement.
KTLA 5 – Cal Baptist University cutting 3 major sports programs (Play video)
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