NCAA settlement on hold as judge urges revisions
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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.
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
Wake Forest and Oregon State announced a home-and-home series Wednesday that will see the Demon Deacons head to Corvallis in 2025 and the Beavers make the return trip to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 2029.
For Wake Forest, the 2025 game will replace a scheduled road trip to Ole Miss, which has been canceled by the Demon Deacons, a move that generated criticism from Rebels coach Lane Kiffin.
Ole Miss beat Wake Forest 40-6 in Winston-Salem on Saturday. After the game, Kiffin criticized Wake Forest athletic director John Currie for canceling the return trip, saying that violated “an unwritten rule.”
A source told ESPN that Wake Forest had been working with Ole Miss for the past several years to move the return trip but was unable to reach an agreement.
The home-and-home with Oregon State will be more financially lucrative for Wake Forest and helps fill a need on the Beavers’ schedule created when the Pac-12 fell apart with 10 schools departing this summer.
“We are committed to making decisions that best serve our program and our student-athletes, and that includes bringing national games to Winston-Salem,” Currie said in a statement released by the school. “We have a high degree of respect for Ole Miss and their fans, and we congratulate them on their victory last weekend in sold-out Allegacy Stadium. But given the ongoing financial pressures of the new era of college athletics and our priority on continuing to grow resources to benefit our student-athletes, it was the right business decision to secure this two-game home-and-home series with Oregon State, and cancel the planned game in Oxford next year.”
Ole Miss suggested Wake Forest would pay a $1 million buyout to cancel the 2025 trip to Oxford, although sources at Wake Forest said that number was inflated. Wake Forest said in its statement that it honored the terms of the original contract with the Rebels, which dates back to 2014.
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Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff Writer
USC landed a key commitment Wednesday when four-star wide receiver Jerome Myles, the No. 26 prospect in the 2025 ESPN 300, committed to the Trojans, continuing a hot late-summer recruiting run for Lincoln Riley & Co.
Myles, who decommitted from Ole Miss in June, is ESPN’s fifth-ranked wide receiver in 2025 and stood as the nation’s top uncommitted pass catcher prior to his commitment. The No. 1 prospect in the state of Utah this cycle, Myles picked the Trojans over Texas A&M and Utah, and he now lands as the second-ranked member of USC’s 2025 class, trailing only five-star quarterback Julian Lewis (No. 2 in the 2025 ESPN 300).
Myles, who felt home ties to Utah and visited Texas A&M in Week 1, told ESPN his recruitment swung on the plan Riley and his staff presented during Myles’ Week 2 visit to USC.
“USC just blew everybody out of the water,” Myles said. “They produce the most NFL draft picks. And the wide receiver development is crazy. And if I don’t make it in football out there, I’ll make it some way in life. They’re not all about just the football part. I like that.”
Myles initially committed to Ole Miss in the spring before pulling his pledge from the Rebels and reopening his commitment. His senior campaign at Utah’s Corner Canyon High School ended on Aug. 30 when Myles suffered a season-ending ACL injury, prompting the 6-foot-3, 220-pound prospect to push up his originally scheduled Oct. 30 commitment ceremony. With Myles off the board, four-star pass catcher Jaden Nickens (No. 162 in the ESPN 300) remains as the last uncommitted player among ESPN’s top-30 wide receivers in 2025.
Myles’ pledge comes 10 days after USC secured top inside linebacker prospect Ty Jackson (No. 44 in the ESPN 300), who visited the Trojans on the same weekend as Myles. USC has now added four top-100 pledges since July 30 with Myles and Jackson following Georgia outside linebacker flip Jadon Perlotte (No. 84 in the ESPN 300) and UCF safety flip Kendarius Reddick (No. 89)
USC currently holds the No. 16 recruiting spot in 2025, per ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle.
Myles took official visits to Utah and Texas A&M prior to pulling his commitment from Ole Miss in June. Last month, he told ESPN that USC, Texas, A&M, Utah, Georgia and Ohio State had made the cut among the finalists in his recruitment entering his senior season.
Myles’ connection with Texas A&M dipped after he visited College Station with Corner Canyon teammate and 2026 quarterback prospect Helaman Casuga during the Aggies’ 23-13 loss to Notre Dame on the opening weekend of the regular season. At USC a week later, Myles heard everything he needed from a coaching staff that made Myles a priority after offering him in July.
“I just wanted to learn more about their history and what they have in store for me,” Myles said. “When I went out there, they definitely impressed me.”
In Myles, USC has a speedy, deep-threat receiver to pair with Lewis in the 2025 class. Myles is a state champion sprinter in the 100- and 200-meter events. Across his sophomore and junior seasons at Corner Canyon, Myles totaled 53 catches for 1,185 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Myles is now the ninth ESPN 300 commit in USC’s 2025 class. The 11th-ranked Trojans visit No. 18 Michigan at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in Week 4.
BALTIMORE — Craig Kimbrel‘s time with the Orioles could be coming to an end after the struggling team designated its former closer for assignment Wednesday following the latest in a series of rough outings.
Kimbrel gave up six runs on three hits in ⅔ of an inning of relief in Baltimore’s 10-0 home loss to the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night. Kimbrel has a 13.94 ERA in his past 11 appearances.
This season, his first with Baltimore, Kimbrel has a 5.33 ERA with six blown saves. Signed for $13 million, Kimbrel lost his job as closer in May.
The Orioles have lost eight of 11 games to fall four games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the American League East.
“The mojo that we’ve had has just drifted away from us the last few months,” Orioles general manager Mike Elias said Tuesday. “There are reasons for it that are obvious, but a lot of it is we’ve got people here that are experiencing a downturn — whether it’s themselves or the team.”
In a corresponding roster move, they recalled right-hander Bryan Baker from Triple-A Norfolk.
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