By Mare Pritchard OMAHA, Neb.- Over the summer, UNO’s Chancellor JoAnne Li along with Vice Chancellor and Athletic Director Adrian Dowell released a statement that said the university would opt out of the House vs. NCAA settlement.
Nicknamed the House Settlement, the lawsuit was brought forth by former ASU swimmer Grant House aiming for the NCAA to pay damages to current and former players for what they could have made in NIL money prior to when it was allowed according to The Arizona Republic
“This lawsuit basically deals with students who sued the NCAA for missing out on name, image and likeness stuff,” said UNO’s School of Communications lecturer Andrew Stem.
Universities that opt into the House settlement have a few guidelines to follow including backpay for former athletes, revenue sharing, salary caps for athletes and roster limits for teams.
With UNO’s decision to opt out of the settlement for the academic year there will be practically zero changes for the athletic program. However, if UNO decides to opt in to the settlement next year, they will be required to follow the same guidelines as all currently opted-in universities across the nation.
“We wanted to be able to see what was going to happen in that first year and still maintain what we’ve done because our sports have been amazing,” said Aaron Whaley, the president and founder of The Omaha Bull Market.
The Omaha Bull Market is UNO’s unofficial NIL collective. The Bull Market helps UNO student-athletes find NIL deals.
Out of the 365 Division 1 universities, around 54 of them chose to opt out of the House Settlement. UNO is the only school in both conferences it belongs to, NCHC for hockey and Summit League for all others, to opt out of the House Settlement according to College Hockey Insider and sportico.com.
The university has not yet announced if they will be opting in or out of the House Settlement for the 2026-2027 academic year. UNO and Division 1 schools have until March 1st to notify the NCAA of their decision.
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