The NCAA has agreed to a proposed $2.02 million federal class-action settlement that removes prior limits on prize money for athletes before college enrollment. The settlement, led by co-plaintiffs Reese Brantmeier and Maya Joint, will allow athletes in all sports to accept prize earnings without the previous restrictions that once capped tennis players at retaining $10,000.

Brantmeier first filed an antitrust claim in 2024 after losing most of the $48,913 she earned at the 2021 US Open and missing the 2022 fall season when the NCAA questioned certain expenses she submitted from that tournament. Joint likewise lost most of the $147,000 she earned from a second-round showing at the 2024 US Open ahead of entering the University of Texas. The plaintiffs say Joint followed protocols and later turned professional in December.

The settlement was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. It contains injunctive relief that the plaintiffs say will benefit future generations of student-athletes across all sports by striking down restrictive prize-money rules that applied prior to enrollment.

“The proposed settlement is an extraordinary outcome for the Classes and the injunctive relief obtained will positively impact future generations of student-athletes,” the plaintiffs declared in a brief.

For college tennis specifically, the change ends a longstanding barrier for players navigating the transition from junior and professional circuits into collegiate competition. The agreement represents a notable revision to NCAA policy that affects how incoming student-athletes may manage earnings earned before they become enrolled.

On April 26, 1976, Evonne Goolagong reached the top of the WTA rankings after winning the Virginia Slims Championships, the tournament now called the WTA Finals. That milestone went unrecognized at the time and remained absent from official lists until 2007, when missing paper records were uncovered in the WTA’s rankings archive.

The rankings in 1976 were calculated every two weeks. A review of the recovered documents showed Goolagong had overtaken Chris Evert for the No. 1 position for two weeks from April 26 to May 9, 1976. Although she had been recorded later as the 16th player ever announced as WTA No. 1, the corrected history establishes she was actually the second woman to hold the top spot, after Evert.

“I’m very proud of the achievement,” Goolagong told the Associated Press in 2007. “I was on a roll for that stretch in 1976. It was a great surprise to hear after all these years.” The WTA presented her with a No. 1 trophy in 2007, 31 years after the ranking change and 24 years after her retirement from the tour.

The ranking system was still new then, having been introduced five months earlier in November 1975. “Unfortunately our record-keeping wasn’t perfect in those early days of women’s tennis and our ranking system was viewed as a means of just accepting tournament entries,” then-WTA CEO Larry Scott said at the time. “It wasn’t until the early 1980s that the media and players started to pay attention to the changes in the rankings during the year as opposed to only the end-of-season rankings.”

The corrected entry adds to Goolagong’s distinguished resume: seven Grand Slam singles titles, including four Australian Opens (1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977), Roland Garros in 1971, and Wimbledon in 1971 and 1980. She won her final two majors—the December 1977 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1980—as a mom, one of only three women in the Open Era to do so alongside Margaret Court and Kim Clijsters, and the only mother to win Wimbledon in that era.

On April 26, 1976, Evonne Goolagong reached the top of the WTA rankings after winning the Virginia Slims Championships, the event now known as the WTA Finals. That ascent went unrecognized in real time and remained hidden until 2009 when the WTA discovered several paper records missing from its rankings archive.

The rankings in 1976 were calculated every two weeks, and the revised archive showed Goolagong had overtaken Chris Evert for the top spot for two weeks from April 26 to May 9, 1976. At the time the WTA rankings had only been in place for five months, having been introduced in November 1975, and the omission was attributed to imperfect record-keeping in the sport’s early administrative days.

“I’m very proud of the achievement,” Goolagong told the Associated Press in 2009. “I was on a roll for that stretch in 1976. It was a great surprise to hear after all these years.”

The discovery changed how Goolagong’s ranking history is viewed. Although she was the 16th player ever to be announced as No. 1 on the WTA rankings, the corrected record shows she was actually the second woman ever to hold the position, after Evert. The WTA presented Goolagong with a No. 1 trophy in 2009, 31 years after her rise and 26 years after she retired from the tour.

“Unfortunately our record-keeping wasn’t perfect in those early days of women’s tennis and our ranking system was viewed as a means of just accepting tournament entries,” then-WTA CEO Larry Scott said at the time. “It wasn’t until the early 1980s that the media and players started to pay attention to the changes in the rankings during the year as opposed to only the end-of-season rankings.”

Goolagong’s corrected place in history sits alongside an already remarkable resume: seven Grand Slam singles titles, including four Australian Opens (1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977), Roland Garros in 1971, and Wimbledon in 1971 and 1980. She won the December 1977 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1980 as a mother, one of three women in the Open Era to do so alongside Margaret Court and Kim Clijsters, and the only mother to win Wimbledon in that era.