The history of paying college athletes in the United States spans many years. Today, colleges and universities are entering a new era of compensating athletes. This is reported by infohub.kz.

The practice of paying student-athletes existed even before the NCAA was founded. In 1906, before the NCAA was established at the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt, athletes would accept cash or train tickets as inducements to attend particular schools. In some cases, tuition and room and board were also covered. However, this practice was not officially regulated.

In 1948, the NCAA adopted the "Sanity Code" in an attempt to rein in the flood of recruiting inducements. However, in 1956, the NCAA standardized athletic scholarships, opening the door for eventual change. Yet cash and other perks were never completely eliminated.

In 2014, former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon won a class-action lawsuit over the use of his likeness in a video game. This marked the beginning of a series of losses for the NCAA in court. O'Bannon's victory helped clear the way for athletes to receive a stipend to cover cost-of-living expenses outside their scholarships. Eleven years later, the House settlement, stemming from another lawsuit, allowed schools to share athletic revenue with players every year, up to $21.3 million this season. It also legitimized third-party name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, allowing schools to exceed that cap and leading to football rosters with $50 million payrolls.

As a next step, a bill awaiting a vote in the Senate aims to codify many of the rules in the House settlement. Most importantly, it proposes doubling the salary cap to nearly $49 million per school, with the hope that shifting money from third-party NIL to under the cap will set a more realistic limit on school spending.

If the bill doesn't pass, major conferences like the SEC and Big Ten could try to establish a framework to keep the college system together. In that case, Olympic and women's sports programs, which rely on funds from football and basketball, would be at risk. Without cost controls, the entire industry could end up looking to private equity and a potential superleague for funding.