Judge delays $2.8 billion NCAA settlement to address roster limit concerns. Attorneys warn of chaos
Sports
She gave the sides 14 days to contact their mediator and return to the bargaining table
The judge overseeing the rewriting of the college sports rulebook threw a potentially deal-wrecking roadblock into the mix Wednesday, insisting parties in the $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit redo the part of the proposed settlement involving roster limits that many schools are already putting in motion.
“Any disruption that may occur is a problem of Defendants’ and NCAA members schools’ own making,” U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken wrote in a pointed five-page order in which she gave no weight to the argument that a reworking of the proposal could throw college sports into chaos.
She gave the sides 14 days to contact their mediator and return to the bargaining table.
The settlement in the landmark class-action lawsuit called for schools to no longer be bound by scholarship limits for their teams, but rather by roster limits in which everyone would be eligible for aid.
It figured to ultimately weed out walk-ons, athletes on partial scholarships and, in extreme cases, entire teams. In preparing for the settlement to be approved, schools across the country have been busy cutting players who, in turn, were finding spots on new teams.
