After some confusion, attorneys in the NCAA v. House case are expected to file a revision to the settlement that will grant schools the ability to grandfather in roster limits.
The revision, which is expected to be filed on Wednesday night, comes after Judge Claudia Wilken delayed final approval of the case over roster limits, calling on attorneys to add a grandfathering clause to roster limits “so that members of the Injunctive Relief Settlement Class will not be harmed by the immediate implementation of the roster limits provision.”
Initially, an Associated Press report seemed to indicate that roster spots would be found for only those who individually objected to the case, though that was cleared up on Tuesday by CBS Sports‘ Brandon Marcello.
Some confusion over roster limits in AP story. I reached out to Steve Berman for clarity on if deal pertains only to objectors.”
“No, it covers all who are designated student athletes – anyone who lost a roster spot, not just objectors. The chart is just to show how it works” https://t.co/Gc3m0xXy1D
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) May 6, 2025
It was later reported on Tuesday that House v. NCAA plaintiffs had requested grandfather protection for all athletes who lost spots because of roster limits. This will act as a safeguard for current student-athletes, allowing them to continue to operate under the old set of rules (with larger rosters) while they finish out their career.
Grandfathering in the roster limits will be an option for schools, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reports, noting that it will also permit athletes who leave their current school to keep their grandfather status at their new school.
Judge Wilken gave attorneys a May 7 deadline to submit a revision to the settlement addressing the roster limit situation, and the filing is expected tonight.
Once that is filed, the door is open for Judge Wilken to approve the settlement. At the final approval hearing in April, roster limits were the main sticking point for Wilken. She found no issue with the $20.5 million schools will be able to pay their athletes in NIL money and the $2.8 billion in back pay damages former athletes will receive.
So how will this affect the next couple of incoming classes? Many schools cut and also added. So they have a combo of transfers and also high school current seniors and juniors? Now it’s too many again?
Everyone gets a trophy and everyone gets a roster spot.
Option? They will all obviously opt out. The judge will never go for this.
Question: Now that 47 has created a presidential commission on college athletics, and has appointed Saban as the co chair, how would that impact Olympic and non revenue generating sports?
I recall that Saban was vastly against revenue sharing with students, and supposedly this is created to sort out the current mess, and to bring non revenue sports some parity.
So would swimming be better off or worse off under Saban’s commission?
So….optional and up to the schools. Curious to see how many of the thousands of athletes that were cut get brought back. This case should not be signed by the judge as it is harming a large group within the settling group. With the outgoing money being forced by this case the colleges would not have cut these kids. And let’s remember that’s what they are….kids. Welcome to the real world kids. Where is USA swimming and the US Olympic committee in all of this, as the Olympic sports will be slaughtered here.
Not signing it would completely blow everything up. Unfortunately signing the case is really the only true path to keeping some semblance of what we have for our sport.
This is just like Fortnite. The players (swimmers) that got eliminated (cut) can get rebooted (grandfathered in) but if they left the lobby (transferred) then they can’t get back in the game. Crazy
This is all a mess! Kids that were cut and chose not to go into the portal will be the most affected. Some chose for academics as well! My kid will be affected by this! She’s so worried she will now be asked to come back! She said there is no way she can go back knowing her coach cut her and she didn’t need to… now she’s at risk for losing everything. You even wrote an article about my girl. We still don’t know what she’s going to be able to keep as a student athlete.
Great point and we’re in the exact same boat. They should be offered to be brought back and given full rides regardless of they come back out not until the completion of their swim careers. Shame on these conference commissioners and AD’s to allow these kids to be in this position. It’s despicable and really shows the lack of intelligence at these institutions. It has truly tainted my love and support for college athletics. Do you think the coaches want to invite kids back? No way. They love having less kids to coach. So you’re right, kids that opted to stay and not enter the portal will be the most affected.
Hold on, I’m confused with your confusion here…
First and foremost, I truly am sorry your daughter went through that. But…”she’s worried she will now be asked to come back”….what do you mean by this? The rest of your paragraph makes it known that she wasn’t happy with how it worked out and has found a way to handle that. Why is that a “worry” when she can just say “thanks, but no thanks, I know where I’m at and am happy”? Maybe I’m really misunderstanding all that’s happened here, but I think it’s pretty clear they can keep what they were owed regardless moving forward the rest of their time at the given university.
I feel for you. Even though cut athletes were told that they get to keep their scholarships, there is so much more that they miss out on. Priority/Early registering for classes, food and dining perks, and so much more. It’s just a mess!
Hrumpf, Hrurumpf go the pundits crackling about the why and why not about nothing to be changed except that roster limits are the wave of the future, NIL $ is for real in NCAA swimming and the sport is changing radically. All for the good! Too ALL – Please try to enjoy the ride!
Change isn’t really the major issue it is the implementation of these changes. Allowing swimmers who were already on a roster to finish their degrees at the school who recruited and signed them should not even be an issue. It may shock you but not everyone goes to college just to swim…..some kids are there for a degree too.
If the “kids” are there for a degree, they can stay at tat school JUST not swim. Life is a series of choices! Stop whining.