| BREAKING: Judge grants final approval to House v. NCAA settlement. What does it all mean? A much-anticipated development finally occurred late Friday night when U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken issued her final approval of the settlement in the landmark House v. NCAA case. The new era of pay-for-play revenue sharing has officially begun in college sports. For those of us who have covered this topic for so long, it has been astounding to see how quickly the NCAA abandoned its too-long-held shamateurism rules and acknowledged that college athletes are in fact worthy of being compensated for their time, their work, and their talent. It’s a shame the NCAA had to sued into doing what is not only fair but also legal. Yes, the transition has been uncomfortable and chaotic, but that’s only because the NCAA resisted these changes for so long. It will take a while — a couple of years, at least — for new paradigm to settle in. Instead of the NCAA, we have a new College Sports Commission, which will be responsible for overseeing and enforcing the new rules. (Good luck with that!) Instead of wildly large payments that are clearly recruiting inducements, we are going to have a new set of regulations around Name, Image and Likeness deals that is designed to yield contracts that are far less lucrative than the ones we’ve been seeing. (Good luck with that too!) In theory, the playing field between the colleges will be leveled, but the gap between the haves and have nots that has been in place since the late 19th century will remain. The only question is how big it will be. There are lot of questions about what happened and what will happen. Our legal expert Kristi Dosh has answered some of the more pressing questions in the wake of the House settlement, including a very big surprise in the final version. Needless to say, we will continue to cover this very important topic in the weeks, months and years ahead. Thanks for your support of Hoops HQ. Let the new era begin! — Seth | 