NCAA settlement on hold as judge urges revisions
-
Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff Writer
A federal judge ordered the attorneys negotiating a major settlement that could reshape the business model of college sports to “go back to the drawing board” to resolve concerns she has about how the deal would limit the ways in which boosters can provide money to athletes.
Judge Claudia Wilken declined to grant preliminary approval to the House v. NCAA antitrust settlement Thursday. She said she was concerned with multiple parts of the terms of the deal. Chief among her worries was a clause that would require any money boosters provide to athletes to be for a “valid business purpose.”
During the past several years, booster collectives have evolved to provide payments to athletes that on paper are payments for the use of the player’s name, image and likeness but in practice have served as de facto salaries. The settlement terms would make it easier for the NCAA to eliminate those payments.
“What are we going to do with this?” Wilken asked. “I found that taking things away from people is usually not too popular.”
Wilken gave attorneys representing the NCAA and the plaintiff class of Division I athletes three weeks to confer and decide whether they could revise the language or need to scuttle the pending deal. NCAA lead attorney Rakesh Kilaru told the judge that the revised rules for how collectives operate are “a central part of the deal.”
“Without it, I’m not sure there will be a settlement,” Kilaru said.
Jeffrey Kessler, co-lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told ESPN on Thursday night that he was comfortable with the judge’s suggestion to remove the new language about NIL collectives from the settlement.
“We are perfectly fine with those changes. It’s now up to the NCAA. Hopefully, they’ll agree to them,” Kessler said. “If the deal falls apart, we go back to trial. If they want to face that, it’s a decision they have to make.”
The NCAA, its power conferences and attorneys representing all Division I athletes agreed in May to settle three major antitrust lawsuits that threaten to upend the business model of college sports. The defendants agreed to pay roughly $2.7 billion in damages to current and former athletes. The parties also agreed to a forward-looking system that will allow schools to directly pay athletes via name, image and likeness deals up to a limit, which is expected to be $20 million to $23 million per school next year and would rise on an annual basis. In exchange, the NCAA would have far more leeway to enforce rules it says are designed to protect a competitive balance among schools and preserve what makes college sports unique.
Kilaru told Judge Wilken that the restrictions placed on booster collectives in the settlement were not significantly different from the association’s current rules, which prohibit boosters paying athletes for performance or for using NIL payments as an inducement to recruit an athlete.
“At any moment that rule could be enforced by the NCAA,” he said.
However, a federal judge in Tennessee granted an injunction earlier this year that prohibits the NCAA from punishing boosters or athletes for negotiating any NIL deal as part of the recruiting process. In that case, the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia argued that the NCAA is illegally restricting opportunities for student-athletes by preventing them from negotiating the terms of NIL deals prior to deciding where they want to go to school.
It’s not clear whether the Tennessee injunction applied nationwide or just in Tennessee and Virginia, but the NCAA told its members in a letter after the ruling that it decided “to pause and not begin investigations involving third-party participation in NIL-related activities” while the injunction remains in place. The pause on investigations remains in place, according to the association.
An NCAA spokesperson said the proposed settlement was “the product of hard-fought negotiations that would bring stability and sustainability to college sports” and that the defendants will “carefully consider the court’s questions, which are not uncommon in the context of class action settlements.”
Collectives associated with the most prominent football and basketball programs in the nation currently distribute $10 million to $20 million per year to their players, according to multiple industry sources. If those operations are significantly reined in by the settlement, players on those teams could potentially make less money through the proposed revenue-sharing agreement than they currently do through NIL deals.
Wilken also told the attorneys she was concerned about future college athletes who are not yet members of the class action lawsuit but would be restricted by the terms of 10-year-long settlement when they begin their college sports career. Kessler said that if future athletes believe that the revenue agreement is an unfair restriction on their earning potential they will be free to file a new antitrust lawsuit once they begin their college career.
The two parties agreed to discuss possible revisions to the terms during the coming weeks. If the sides can’t reach an agreement, all three cases that are part of the proposed settlement would proceed toward trial. The House v. NCAA case was scheduled to go to trial in January 2025 prior to the parties announcing a settlement.
College sports leaders, including NCAA president Charlie Baker, have previously championed the pending settlement as a foundational part of solving the industry’s myriad legal problems. NCAA leaders hoped that a settlement that provided new benefits to athletes would help them persuade Congress to pass a law that would add more stability to the business of college sports.
-
Max Olson, ESPN Staff Writer
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers‘ oblique strain is not as serious as initially feared and his status for returning to play is considered week-to-week, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Sunday.
Ewers is likely to miss No. 1 Texas’ game against UL Monroe on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+), which would pave the way for redshirt freshman Arch Manning to make his first career start for the Longhorns.
There’s no set timetable for his return from his abdominal injury, but sources said there’s optimism after consulting with doctors. Orangebloods first reported that Ewers’ status is week-to-week.
Ewers suffered the noncontact injury in the second quarter of Texas’ 56-7 win over UTSA on Saturday night and did not return to the game. Manning replaced him and produced 223 passing yards, 53 rushing yards and five total touchdowns over nine drives.
Texas opens SEC play at home against Mississippi State on Sept. 28 and then has an idle week before meeting No. 15 Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry in Dallas on Oct. 12 and No. 2 Georgia on Oct. 19.
The Longhorns moved ahead of Georgia to No. 1 in the AP poll on Sunday following the Bulldogs’ close 13-12 win at Kentucky. This is the first time Texas has been ranked No. 1 in the poll since 2008.
-
Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
The ACC publicly reprimanded Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi and fined the school $5,000 on Sunday after he criticized the officiating following a 38-34 win over West Virginia.
Pitt completed a fourth-quarter comeback over its rivals Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh. In his postgame comments on ESPN, Narduzzi said, “Some of the calls we got — late hit out of bounds, they catch a ball with a hands in the face and I’ve never seen anything like it, you know? Wow. We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, and we beat the officials, too, in one game.”
Pitt was penalized 12 times for 112 yards, while West Virginia had seven penalties for 67 yards.
In its statement Sunday night, the ACC said Narduzzi violated the ACC sportsmanship policy, which states, in part: “Public criticism of officials or public comments evaluating the officiating of particular contests is not in the best interest of intercollegiate athletics.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports5 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports11 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Environment1 year agoTesla advances Powerwall pilot project with German electric company