Federal Judge Delays House Settlement, Concerned With Roster Limits
The settlement expected to redefine college sports next season did not earn final approval from federal judge Claudia Wilken, who expressed concerns about the proposed roster limits that could end athletic careers for hundreds of athletes across all sports.
Wilken indicated she was satisfied with the remainder of the proposed House Settlement and was prepared to give final approval pending changes to the section that will provide a hard upper limit for participants on each athletic team in Division I conferences that opt into the agreement, which will include the Power Four leagues (SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Big 12).
According to the Associated Press, Wilken wrote, “With the exception of the immediate implementation of the roster limits provisions that will cause harm to certain members of the Injunctive Relief Settlement Class … the Court tentatively finds that it can grant final approval of the remainder of the settlement agreement as fair, reasonable, and adequate.”
The judge denounced the language in the settlement which would put in place the limits on athlete participation for the 2025-26 season. Fearing college athletes being cut from their teams, Wilken suggested a phased implementation where current participants would be exempt from the caps and teams would not be fully compliant with the limits for another four seasons.
However, any proposed changes to the settlement might be too little too late for swimmers who have already been released from their teams. Most high-major programs have already finalized their rosters for next season to be compliant with the maximum roster size of 30 for both women and men. Individual conferences have the authority to tighten the limit further, and the Southeastern Conference has gone down to a limit of 22 participants for men’s swimming and diving.
The cuts have led to hundreds of swimmers entering their names into the transfer portal, seeking new collegiate homes, while others have chosen to remain at their current universities but end their Division I athletic careers. Athletes cut from teams aiming to comply with the House Settlement remain entitled to any promised scholarship funds, provided they did not enter the transfer portal.
According to ESPN, “The NCAA and the defendant conferences argued that it was not practical to change their plans for roster limits now because some schools have already starting cutting players to prepare for the expected change.” Wilken dismissed that criticism. “Any disruption that may occur is a problem of Defendants’ and NCAA members schools’ own making,” Wilken wrote, per ESPN.
The House Settlement is named for former Arizona State swimmer Grant House, who was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the NCAA, and its resolution will allow universities to directly compensate athletes for the first time. It will also distribute $2.8 billion in backpay to former college athletes.
Read more from the Associated Press here and from ESPN here.
Will students who were cut prematurely have legal recourse against the teams who cut them? Will they be allowed to stay and compete for their team?
It’s really unlikely that they have a valid legal claim against their teams. I doubt that any college had an enforceable contract obligation to keep any swimmer on scholarship.
From my understanding, swimmers who were cut and enter the transfer portal but then decide to stay at their current school will not lose their scholarship. There was an article published a while back with Q&A’s regarding this.