NCAA Reaches $20 Million Settlement With Ex-Players Over Videogames

In the opening minutes of a trial that could upend American college sports, the NCAA said it settled a separate lawsuit over the use of college players' likenesses in videogames made by Electronic Arts. The NCAA said it would pay $20 million to current and former Bowl Subdivision football players and Division I men's basketball players.

The case had been set to go to trial in March. The settlement is historic in that the NCAA will cut a check to modern-day college players for their on-field performance. Yet the NCAA maintains it can prohibit college athletes from earning money off their play while in school. The organization spent Monday in federal court defending itself in an antitrust suit that accuses it of unfairly blocking generations of student-athletes from making money off their own images.