Last Thursday a hearing before Judge Claudia Wilken was held in theory to preliminarily approve of the revolutionary and far-reaching settlement in the House case we all have heard about. To quote everybody’s favorite coach Lee Corso, of ESPN Game Day – “NOT SO FAST!”

I am going to give you this quick synopsis of what happened for us lay people. Basically, recall there are three buckets of major issues in House as I see it: (1) back pay for lost income (the “damages” class); (2) forward pay for revenue share; and; (3)  rules and policies changes to foster a future state more reflective of resolving litigation concerns around employment, anti-trust, and NIL constraint issues (the “injunctive” class); (2) and (3) are somewhat intertwined!

Judge Wilkins is not happy that in (3) there are limits or caps on what collectives can do with athletes via, most notably the proof requirement that NIL payments to an athlete is for a “valid business purpose”. She seems to lean more toward a “pay-for-play system. So, here’s the rub, the NCAA aggressively opposes any such notion that money can flow to athletes unchecked and thus open the Pandora’s box of cash wars between universities that destroys any last vestige of amateurism, a status the NCAA is desperately trying to preserve. Will the parties reframe terms, or opt for a trial, or will Judge Wilkins be persuaded the settlement is good “as is”, is all TBD.  As I predicted in my earlier article “clear as mud, far from over”…  

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

 NILegally Speaking™ is written by PowerNIL/KenFeinberg, attorney, in collaboration with other expert attorneys focused on employment, labor, contract, and intellectual property law.

ken@powernil.com                                                                                                                       www.powernil.com

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