From Sensegiving to Sensemaking: TikTok Discourse Surrounding the House Settlement

Abstract

In June 2025, the House v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) settlement was reached, transforming college athletics and athletes’ compensatory rights and opportunities. Utilizing the theoretical coupling of sensegiving and sensemaking, this study explores how the case and eventual settlement were communicated and interpreted across TikTok. Through a reflexive thematic analysis of 100 TikTok videos and 2,529 accompanying user comments, findings indicate that TikTok content creators (i.e., sensegivers) often explained the settlement through oversimplified or opinionated content. Additionally, sensegivers addressed NCAA instability and fairness debates. In response, audience members (i.e., sensemakers) engaged in collective sensemaking, expressing confusion, offering their own opinions, attributing blame, discussing the morality of athlete compensation, and amplifying/extending fairness concerns. This study extends sensegiving and sensemaking scholarship in sport communication. Theoretically our study demonstrates how policy disruption and its communication via social media fosters a decentralized, iterative, public, and collective process of sensegiving and sensemaking. Practically, this work signals the need for more institutional and authoritative narratives on social media during times of change to reduce ambiguity and misinformation and build transparency during periods of uncertainty.