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PayPal Holdings Inc. will process payments from universities to student athletes under multi-year deals the payments company announced early Thursday. PayPal’s agreements with the Big 10 and Big 12 college conferences follows a court ruling June 6 that permits colleges and universities to include student athletes in a revenue share.
The ruling also includes a settlement in which the National Collegiate Athletic Association will pay $2.8 billion in damages over the next 10 years to students who have participated in athletics since 2016.
The move by PayPal to serve students at Big 10 and Big 12 schools includes the company’s popular Venmo peer-to-peer payment platform. PayPal says Venmo has been in talks with the two college conferences to enable acceptance at bookstores, ticketing, concessions, and merchandise. Some 64 million U.S. accounts use Venmo monthly, according to PayPal, though a breakdown of usage by university and college students wasn’t immediately available.
PayPal says it expects athletes will start receiving funds from their colleges this summer, with funding to Venmo wallets starting with football season and “on-campus activations.” The company says tuition payments on its platform will start early next year.
Sports in the two conferences constitute a wide range, with 28 in the Big Ten alone. Despite its name, the Big Ten claims 18 institutions and 14,000 student athletes. The Big Twelve embraces 16 schools.
