Ohio State University has agreed to pay $100 million in damages to 279 former students who said a campus doctor sexually assaulted them decades ago. Just one of the former students did not sign on to the agreement, the university and lawyers for the accusers said.

The announcement appeared to be a significant step toward ending the eight-year legal battle to get Ohio State to pay damages over allegations that it knew Dr. Richard Strauss was preying on students, the majority of whom were also athletes, but did nothing to stop him.