EA Sports and Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) have finalized their settlement agreement with the Ed O'Bannon plaintiffs over improperly using athletes' image and likeness in a series of video games.

According to ESPN's "Outside the Lines" (OTL), EA Sports and CLC have agreed to pay $40 million in the settlement that has yet to be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken. The two companies settled out of the lawsuit, which the NCAA is still fighting, in Sept. 2013, but only now finalized the settlement terms.

The NCAA was opposed to EA Sports and CLC leaving the lawsuit, but ultimately did not get their way. Also dragging out the settlement was how to split the money since the O'Bannon plaintiffs were separated into three different groups.

The settlement agreement states 77 percent will go to the class of players represented by Steve Berman, a co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. The group is led by former Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller. 12 percent will go to the group led by O'Bannon, a former UCLA basketball player. The last 10 percent is going to the class of plaintiffs led by former Rutgers football player Ryan Hart and former West Virginia football player Shawne Alston.

O'Bannon, Keller, Hart and the other named plaintiffs are set to receive compensation ranging from $2,500 to $15,000 for the time and effort they have devoted to the case. O'Bannon first filed the suit more than five years ago and it later became a class action case before Wilken chose to hear Keller's case against the video game maker separately.

Since other NCAA athletes' image and likeness appeared in EA Sports' basketball and football video games since 2003, OTL reported, various current and former student-athletes could receive anywhere from $4,000 to $100,000 from the settlement.

To determine fair payment for these athletes, they will have to sign up to be paid. From there, lawyers will use a formula to calculate their payment taking into account how many years they appeared in the video game series. The more players who sign up, the less the payments will be and vice versa.

"I'm thrilled that for the first time in the history of college sports, athletes will get compensated for their performance," Berman told OTL. "It's pretty groundbreaking."

CLICK HERE to read the full report from OTL.

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