Reese Brantmeier's path from junior tennis standout to college athlete led to a legal challenge that has now produced a broader result for other student-athletes. Earlier this year, Brantmeier and Maya Joint reached a settlement with the NCAA over a prize-money eligibility restriction that had forced Brantmeier to forfeit much of nearly $49,000 she earned during a 2021 U.S. Open run.
The settlement created a roughly $2 million fund in damages for eligible athletes affected by the overturned restriction, according to the background of the case. It also reflects a shift in how college sports treats prize money earned before enrollment, a question that became more complicated in the NIL era than it once was under older eligibility rules.
How Brantmeier got here
Brantmeier, now 21, first picked up a racket at age 8. She later described that start as a surprise even to her family, saying no one in her family had ever played and that she simply fell in love with the sport from the first time she tried it.
Her competitive rise included playing her first junior U.S. Open at age 14. In 2021, when she returned to the junior U.S. Open at age 16, she reached the final round of women's qualifying and also competed in mixed doubles. That run produced nearly $49,000 in prize money, but NCAA rules at the time required her to give up much of it to preserve her college eligibility.
Brantmeier later sued the NCAA over that restriction. She said the rule once made sense when collegiate athletes were not allowed to earn anything, but argued that in the NIL era it had become an outdated policy that was negatively affecting many athletes. She also said the case became less about her own situation and more about the bigger issue for student-athletes who could face the same problem.
Why the settlement matters
Brantmeier said she was not suing to recover money she had already lost, explaining that she understood the rules in place when she chose to play college tennis. She also said she was ineligible for her first semester in college before the issue was sorted out, then was able to play her freshman spring and move forward with the lawsuit.
The settlement now changes the landscape for athletes in similar situations. Brantmeier said that when athletes are still in high school, they are now able to accept prize money and maintain eligibility, which she called awesome. That kind of change matters because players often have to make decisions about prize money years before they know where their careers will take them.
Jason Miller said Brantmeier and Maya Joint deserved a lot of credit for taking on the issue for themselves and for future student-athletes in tennis and across sports. He called it a pretty remarkable accomplishment.
For Brantmeier, the case is part of a tennis journey that began as a random happenstance and turned into something larger than she expected. For the NCAA, the settlement marks another sign that its old eligibility framework continues to be reshaped by the NIL era and the realities facing athletes today.
