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The federal judge overseeing the massive antitrust lawsuit governing the compensation of college athletes on Monday preliminarily approved a settlement the players struck with the National Collegiate Athletic Association and several major sports conference last summer.
Senior District Judge Claudia Wilken of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California expressed qualms last month about whether the terms of the agreement would unfairly limit the compensation available to athletes. Lawyers responded by amending their proposal slightly late last month to try to address Wilken’s concerns, USA Today reported.
Those adjustments appear to have done the trick: In granting preliminary approval to the agreement Monday, Wilken wrote that the court “will be likely to approve the settlement as fair, reasonable and adequate” after a “fairness hearing” to be held next April.
USA Today noted Monday that numerous steps remain between now and then. Athletes eligible for compensation will be notified of the potential agreement beginning in two weeks and will have the opportunity to object or opt out, and other legal challenges could occur.
The NCAA made major concessions in that settlement to try to maintain its increasingly fragile ability to govern college athletics and whether and how players are compensated. Under the settlement, the NCAA and several major sports conferences agreed to pay $2.8 billion in what is essentially “back pay” for use of athletes’ names, images and likenesses since 2016. The deal would also create a revenue-sharing model going forward in which colleges that choose to participate would agree to distribute roughly a fifth of their annual revenue—roughly $20 million each—to their players.
