The NCAA concussion settlement payouts do not take the form of individual cash awards. Instead, the 2019 Arrington settlement funds a 50-year medical monitoring program for former college athletes, pays for concussion research, and requires safety protocols at member schools. Players kept the right to sue the NCAA individually for personal injury, and to bring class actions limited to a single sport at a single school.
What the Settlement Actually Pays For
The deal, approved by U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee on August 12, 2019, with an effective date of November 18, 2019, resolved the consolidated litigation In re National Collegiate Athletic Association Student-Athlete Concussion Litigation (Case No. 1:13-cv-09116).1Hagens Berman. Federal Judge Approves NCAA Concussions Settlement2NCAA. Arrington Class Settlement Information Lee ruled that the deal provided “substantial benefits to the class in an effective and equitable manner.”
The money in the deal breaks down this way:
- A $70 million fund, paid by the NCAA and its insurers, covers medical screening and evaluations for former athletes.3College Athlete Concussion Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
- An additional $5 million goes to concussion-related research over ten years.3College Athlete Concussion Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
- By early July 2025, the NCAA had paid $92 million in connection with the concussion litigation.4Yahoo Sports. NCAA Pays $92M Concussion Suit
None of that money reaches class members as personal injury compensation. The $70 million pays for the monitoring program itself, not for individual damages.3College Athlete Concussion Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions The settlement also imposed operational requirements on NCAA member schools: mandatory preseason baseline testing, a bar on same-day return to play after a concussion diagnosis, physician clearance before returning to practice or competition, and trained medical personnel at all games for contact sports including football, lacrosse, wrestling, ice hockey, field hockey, soccer, and basketball.5United Educators. Concussion Management Requirements NCAA Institutions
Who Qualifies and How to Use the Program
Eligibility is broad. Anyone who played an NCAA-sanctioned sport at a member institution on or before July 15, 2016 is a class member, regardless of whether they were ever diagnosed with a concussion.3College Athlete Concussion Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
The medical monitoring program began on February 18, 2020, and runs through November 18, 2069. Eligible class members can receive up to two medical evaluations during that window at no personal cost.3College Athlete Concussion Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
To use it, register on the official settlement website and complete a screening questionnaire. The program administrator scores the questionnaire, and athletes who meet the threshold are directed to a regional facility for an in-person evaluation at no cost. You can submit a questionnaire once every five years until age 50, and once every two years after that. The program is managed by EPIQ and can be reached at 1-877-209-9898 or through the settlement website.3College Athlete Concussion Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
Individual and Single-School Claims That Survive
Class members gave up the right to pursue class-action lawsuits seeking medical monitoring damages. Two rights were preserved: individual personal injury claims, and “single-sport, single-institution” class actions alleging bodily injuries from playing one sport at one school.5United Educators. Concussion Management Requirements NCAA Institutions6GovInfo. In Re NCAA Student-Athlete Concussion Litigation
Jeffrey Hoffman’s 2019 case shows how that carve-out is used in practice. Hoffman, a former football player at California State University, Sacramento, filed a class-action complaint against the NCAA in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (Case No. 1:19-cv-446) on behalf of a proposed class of former Sac State football players. He alleged the NCAA knew about the long-term dangers of concussions and sub-concussive hits, including the risks of CTE, dementia, depression, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s, and failed to act on that knowledge to protect the profitability of college football. His complaint pointed to the NCAA’s own Sports Medicine Handbook, which had addressed head injuries as far back as 1933, and argued that meaningful concussion management protocols were not implemented until 2010. The amount in controversy exceeded $5 million.7ClassAction.org. Hoffman v. National Collegiate Athletic Association
The broader MDL docket eventually encompassed 580 similar putative class actions filed by former players at individual schools. In March 2024, a federal court in Illinois narrowed that path. It ruled the Arrington settlement’s carve-out applied only to “claims” (demands for a specific legal remedy), not to broader issue-certification requests under Rule 23(c)(4). The court also denied certification on predominance and superiority grounds, citing the difficulty of managing evidence across more than five decades of varying concussion-related practices.8Inside Class Actions. Illinois Federal Court Denies Certification of Student Athlete Issues Classes on Waiver Grounds
Objections That Shaped the Final Deal
Anthony Nichols, appointed by the court as interim lead objector, and Adrian Arrington, the original lead plaintiff, argued the deal required class members to give up too much. Their central objection was that athletes were being forced to waive class-wide personal injury claims, which Nichols called “extremely valuable” compared to the monitoring benefits.6GovInfo. In Re NCAA Student-Athlete Concussion Litigation
Objectors also flagged conflicts between athletes already diagnosed with neurodegenerative conditions and those still asymptomatic, and argued that athletes in states recognizing standalone medical monitoring claims could have sued for more than the settlement offered. The court rejected that argument, finding recovery in those states was generally limited to monitoring expenses anyway, and concluded that the likelihood of plaintiffs obtaining class-wide certification for personal injury claims was “minimal, at best.”6GovInfo. In Re NCAA Student-Athlete Concussion Litigation
How the NFL Settlement Differs
The NCAA settlement is often confused with the NFL’s 2014 class-action concussion settlement, but they operate differently and cover different people. The NFL deal binds retired professional players who did not opt out by July 7, 2014, and it includes cash tiers, such as a $4 million payment for suicides linked to CTE within a defined qualifying window.9Chicago Tribune. Judge Rules Aaron Hernandez’s Daughter Can’t Sue NFL Over CTE
Its reach can be broad. A $20 million lawsuit filed in October 2017 by Aaron Hernandez’s former fiancée Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, on behalf of their daughter, was dismissed on February 14, 2019 by U.S. District Judge Anita Brody. She ruled that Hernandez qualified as a “Retired NFL Football Player” under the settlement because he was not “seeking active employment” as a player on the opt-out deadline, and that letting the suit proceed “would be allowing the ‘relitigation of settled question at the core’ of the NFL settlement.” Hernandez’s April 2017 death also fell outside the qualifying window for the settlement’s CTE-suicide tier.9Chicago Tribune. Judge Rules Aaron Hernandez’s Daughter Can’t Sue NFL Over CTE10Yahoo Finance. Court Tosses $20M Lawsuit Against NFL For former college athletes weighing their options, the practical takeaway is that the NCAA settlement offers monitoring rather than payouts, and any pursuit of compensation runs through an individual suit or a narrowly scoped single-school class action.