The landmark Ed O’Bannon vs. NCAA case is getting close to materializing for thousands of current and former SEC players.

The case, which earmarked about $60 million in settlement funds for players whose likeness appeared in a video game between May 2003 and September 2014, is in its final stages as claims administrator Kenneth Jue sorts through paperwork and logistics.

In a rare, but increasingly frequent, show of flexibility, the NCAA will allow current players to waive the rulebook if they’re eligible for payment under the ruling.

The amount each player will receive varies depending on a number of factors, including whether their image and jersey number were part of a video game, and for how many years. But many players will receive restitution in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, according to a USA Today report.

The loose framework for the settlement calls for the NCAA to pay out $20 million and EA Sports to pay out $40 million. Of course, this hard-fought legal battle will cost the players: the group’s lawyers are seeking combined fees and expenses “not to exceed” $22 million, or more than one-third of the total pie, according to USA Today.

This doesn’t represent life-changing money, but it’s nice to see young-to-youngish current and former SEC football players getting a well-deserved cut of the video game profits.

To me, whether a player deserves a piece of the athletic revenue produced by the football team is a cloudy, complex question. Sure, Johnny Manziel made Texas A&M a lot of money. But the Aggies’ football team also made Johnny Football. The team and individual brands are symbiotic and interchangeable to an extent.

In a video game, though, you’re depicting a player’s likeness in order to make money. Would it be as exciting to play a game as the 2008 Florida Gators if the Florida quarterback was a generic player rather than a clear No. 15? That individualism suggests a much more direct correlation between flipping a player’s image for a profit.

Athletes had until Thursday to make a claim, and 16,200 did so. Now comes the process of sorting through which of those claims are valid, and contending with a few legal challenges as to the fairness of the process. But football players are close to getting paid.