With new $2.8 billion NCAA settlement, Olivia Dunne and other NCAA athletes find new ray of hope

Olivia Dunne and other NIL athletes will receive a portion of the $2.8 billion that the NCAA will pay in back damages to athletes who competed since 2016. In a new development, Judge Claudia Wilken and the NCAA settled a deal that would allow schools to pay directly to athletes, marking the beginning of a new era in college sports.

Olivia Dunne, who has been a student-athlete at Louisiana State University since 2020, made waves on the gymnastics mat with her maneuvers, contributing scores in the regular season to help LSU win the National title in 2024. Besides that, Dunne became a prominent name in the business domain after she started earning from lucrative brand deals following the Name, Image, and Likeness rule update.

She became the first NIL athlete to sign with WME Sports and sealed her first exclusive partnership with Vuori. Continuing to be one of the highest-valued personalities despite graduating from college, Dunne will soon be one of the athletes to receive a portion of the $2.8 billion that the NCAA will pay in back damages to athletes who competed since 2016.

In recent news, Judge Claudia Wilken came to a settlement with the NCAA, allowing schools to start paying athletes directly from the annual $20.5 million capital set per institution from the 2025-26 season.

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Dunne was in good form in her senior year, but a knee injury sat her out for the latter part of the season, thus forcing her out of the 2025 NCAA Championships. The LSU squad finished third in the semi-finals, failing to make the cut to the finals.

Olivia Dunne addressed the horrifying instance of men stalking her at airports

Olivia Dunne at the 2024 LSU Archive - (Source: Getty)

Olivia Dunne amassed around 13 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, and her growing popularity continues to put her in unpleasant situations. In a TikTok video on May 30, 2024, the 22-year-old narrated the horrifying experiences of a group of men tracking her down, trying to get her autograph at the airports.

"I fear that I'm being stalked, and I don't know what to do. Every single time that i go to the airport, there's a group of at least 10 middle aged men, waiting for me and they harass me. It's these men that want my autograph. They have a stack of 40 pictures of me or my magazines and they will run after me down the TSA PreCheck line and yell at me if I don't give them my autograph, it's insane," she said in the video.

Olivia Dunne added:

"But they will yell at me and make a scene and the people around me are scared. It's crazy. Even this morning was a terrible experience."

The LSU alum recently visited the AthleteCon 2.0, talking about her expertise in the NIL forum.

About the author

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

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Edited by Agnijeeta Majumder