An ultimatum from a federal judge has lawyers for the NCAA and major college conferences hustling to preserve the landmark House v. NCAA settlement.
Judge Claudia Wilken issued an order last week stating that if the settlement parties cannot revise terms in a way that will prevent college athletes from losing roster spots due to the implementation of new roster limits, the $2.8 billion agreement, which resolves a trio of antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and power conferences, will be denied approval.
Wilken gave the settlement parties two weeks to respond.
Prior to Wilken’s latest order, the NCAA and conference defendants had largely held firm in their refusal to modify the settlement they negotiated with plaintiff attorneys, which was agreed to in May 2024. But Wilken has made clear that if her concerns about roster limits are not addressed, she will sink the settlement and send the case to trial — an outcome that would likely be disastrous for the NCAA, and one its leaders are desperate to avoid.
“This settlement is not going to blow up over this,” an athletic director at a Power 4 school told The Athletic.
Several athletic directors and administrators were granted anonymity to speak freely about this latest bump in the road for the settlement, and all agreed that…
