NIL Nuggets of the Week Thread - (4/7-4/13)
In an attempt to stay tapped into all things NIL, Each week I sort through and gather some interesting NIL-centered news items. Today it's a bit different with the House vs. NCAA Settlement taking place.
I will continue adding more news as the week unfolds! Please feel free to link any informative or interesting NIL articles in this thread!
Cheers,
PS: If you'd like to advertise with Orangebloods, sponsoring this Column or a show on Orangbloods Live, please reach out to @Sunny Nelson !
Starting this thread early this week with the hearing approaching today in the U.S. District Court with Honorable Judge Claudia Wilken.
If you see anything on X or a website, please feel free to drop it in this thread and continue to the conversation around the House vs. NCAA settlement today!
The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific time on Monday in federal court in Oakland, Calif. Judge Claudia Wilken could issue the final approval at any time afterward.
Anticipated Speakers today will be Wilken and the lead attorneys—Jeffrey Kessler, Steve Berman, and Rakesh Kilaru. LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne and 13 other athlete objectors or their attorneys are expected to appear in person or by zoom and will be able to state their grievances.
What happens if Wilken rejects the settlement?
- The cases would return to the docket. They could face many years of litigation during which athletes are not paid and current rules likely remain in place.
Steve Berkowitz from USA Today published this morning:
The deal would include nearly $2.8 billion in damages that would go to current and former athletes — and their lawyers — over 10 years. The arrangement also would allow Division I schools to start paying athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) starting July 1, subject to a per-school cap that would increase over time and be based on a percentage of certain athletics revenues.
However, those elements would be just part of a comprehensive reshaping of college sports that would occur under the settlement.
Among other changes:
▶NCAA leaders would seek to engineer rules changes eliminating longstanding, sport-by-sport scholarship limits and replacing them with a new set of roster-size limits. In the first academic year after final approval of the settlement, the roster limit in football, for example, would be 105. Some FBS programs have had many more than that. Rosters in other sports at some schools also stand to be reduced.
▶While athletes would continue to have the ability to make NIL deals with entities other than their schools, the settlement would allow the NCAA and the power conferences to institute rules designed to give the power conferences — through a new entity they are creating — greater enforcement oversight of those arrangements.
If she grants final approval, schools will be able to move forward with plans to start paying athletes for use of their NIL, and the associated changes also will go forward, including the roster limits.
The 10-year window for payment of the damages award, including what stands to be as much as $775 million in attorneys’ fees and costs for the plaintiffs, would begin. However, if objectors appeal a final-approval ruling by Wilken, those payments would be held in escrow — and not made to athletes or lawyers — until all appeals are fully played out.
While final approval — and even the resolution of any appeals — would wrap up these specific cases, there are related actions that will continue. The case brought on behalf of athletes who opted out could continue.
In addition, the South Dakota attorney general is pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University that seeks to reduce the amount of money those schools stand to lose from future NCAA distributions while the association pays its share of the presumptive damages. The NCAA attempted to have the case moved to federal court, but a federal district judge recently ruled that it should proceed in state court.
Michael McCann from Sportico Dropped a "Answering 20 Questions about About House Settlement Final Hearing", this morning
Other Element Notes to the Settlement we know are anticipated
-Schools have to Opt Into New Reveneue Sharing Agreement
- Would start this upcoming Academic Year (2025-26) beginning July 1st.
- Schools can share up to 22% of their Athletic Department Revenue
- All NIL Deals more than $600 will be vetted
- All Deal must be in line with Fair Market Value
- Schools cannot surpass the $20.5M revenue sharing threshold (Tentative Annaual Cap that will increase over time)
- FBS Football rosters would be capped at 105, which at many schools is about 15 spots fewer than typical.
Other tweets from the last week with purpose.
In an attempt to stay tapped into all things NIL, Each week I sort through and gather some interesting NIL-centered news items. Today it's a bit different with the House vs. NCAA Settlement taking place.
I will continue adding more news as the week unfolds! Please feel free to link any informative or interesting NIL articles in this thread!
Cheers,
PS: If you'd like to advertise with Orangebloods, sponsoring this Column or a show on Orangbloods Live, please reach out to @Sunny Nelson !
Starting this thread early this week with the hearing approaching today in the U.S. District Court with Honorable Judge Claudia Wilken.
If you see anything on X or a website, please feel free to drop it in this thread and continue to the conversation around the House vs. NCAA settlement today!
The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific time on Monday in federal court in Oakland, Calif. Judge Claudia Wilken could issue the final approval at any time afterward.
Anticipated Speakers today will be Wilken and the lead attorneys—Jeffrey Kessler, Steve Berman, and Rakesh Kilaru. LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne and 13 other athlete objectors or their attorneys are expected to appear in person or by zoom and will be able to state their grievances.
What happens if Wilken rejects the settlement?
- The cases would return to the docket. They could face many years of litigation during which athletes are not paid and current rules likely remain in place.
Steve Berkowitz from USA Today published this morning:
House vs. NCAA settlement hearing: How today could transform college sports
After nearly five years, what stands to be the most expensive and far-reaching legal case in college sports history on Monday reaches a potentially decisive moment. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken is scheduled to conduct a hearing concerning final approval of the proposed multi-billion-dollar settlements of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences.The deal would include nearly $2.8 billion in damages that would go to current and former athletes — and their lawyers — over 10 years. The arrangement also would allow Division I schools to start paying athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) starting July 1, subject to a per-school cap that would increase over time and be based on a percentage of certain athletics revenues.
However, those elements would be just part of a comprehensive reshaping of college sports that would occur under the settlement.
Among other changes:
▶NCAA leaders would seek to engineer rules changes eliminating longstanding, sport-by-sport scholarship limits and replacing them with a new set of roster-size limits. In the first academic year after final approval of the settlement, the roster limit in football, for example, would be 105. Some FBS programs have had many more than that. Rosters in other sports at some schools also stand to be reduced.
▶While athletes would continue to have the ability to make NIL deals with entities other than their schools, the settlement would allow the NCAA and the power conferences to institute rules designed to give the power conferences — through a new entity they are creating — greater enforcement oversight of those arrangements.
What happens if the settlement is approved?
It is unlikely that Wilken will issue a ruling on Monday. But based on the way she has run other hearings not only in this case, but also others she has overseen over nearly 16 years of antitrust litigation against the NCAA, the parties likely will have a good idea of where she stands by the end of Monday’s hearing.If she grants final approval, schools will be able to move forward with plans to start paying athletes for use of their NIL, and the associated changes also will go forward, including the roster limits.
The 10-year window for payment of the damages award, including what stands to be as much as $775 million in attorneys’ fees and costs for the plaintiffs, would begin. However, if objectors appeal a final-approval ruling by Wilken, those payments would be held in escrow — and not made to athletes or lawyers — until all appeals are fully played out.
While final approval — and even the resolution of any appeals — would wrap up these specific cases, there are related actions that will continue. The case brought on behalf of athletes who opted out could continue.
In addition, the South Dakota attorney general is pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University that seeks to reduce the amount of money those schools stand to lose from future NCAA distributions while the association pays its share of the presumptive damages. The NCAA attempted to have the case moved to federal court, but a federal district judge recently ruled that it should proceed in state court.
Michael McCann from Sportico Dropped a "Answering 20 Questions about About House Settlement Final Hearing", this morning
Other Element Notes to the Settlement we know are anticipated
-Schools have to Opt Into New Reveneue Sharing Agreement
- Would start this upcoming Academic Year (2025-26) beginning July 1st.
- Schools can share up to 22% of their Athletic Department Revenue
- All NIL Deals more than $600 will be vetted
- All Deal must be in line with Fair Market Value
- Schools cannot surpass the $20.5M revenue sharing threshold (Tentative Annaual Cap that will increase over time)
- FBS Football rosters would be capped at 105, which at many schools is about 15 spots fewer than typical.
Other tweets from the last week with purpose.
