OAKLAND, Calif. – Attorneys representing hundreds of thousands of college athletes in litigation pertaining to NCAA policies regarding compensation for use of athletes’ names, images and likenesses (NILs) today filed an amended complaint and settlement for approval, bringing the $2.78 billion deal and its monumental changes one step closer to reality, according to Hagens Berman and Winston & Strawn.

Upon reviewing the initially proposed settlement agreement, U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken requested clarifications to the deal, which attorneys have today responded to, including a supplemental brief outlining the updates.

“Major changes such as these to a multibillion-dollar industry do not happen quickly nor simply. Hagens Berman has been challenging NCAA athlete compensation rules for 20 years, and we fully expected that things would become increasingly complex as we neared the endzone,” said Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman. “We remain grateful to the court’s careful review of this monumental change coming to college sports.”

The Updated NCAA NIL Settlement

Key changes in the settlement include changing language to clarify future rules regarding booster involvement in NIL; additions to the settlement addendum to clarify lack of limitations of future lawsuits regarding Title IX, employment claims; updates to notice documents requested by the court; and filing a new amended complaint with a new class representative.

Attorneys say the changes put forth in today’s filing address specific language, opting for a new, more targeted and defined category focused on entities and individuals most likely to be engaging in pay-for-play deals, as opposed to “boosters.” This narrowed the scope of defendants’ enforcement authority.

“As further clarified by the amendments to the Injunctive Relief Settlement in response to the Court’s questions at the preliminary approval hearing, Defendants’ enforcement authority over third-party NIL deals will no longer extend to all third parties (as it did under the Interim NIL Rules) or the broadly defined term ‘boosters’ (as it did under the prior Agreement presented to the Court),” the plaintiffs’ supplemental brief states. “Rather, it will be limited to a narrower group of entities and individuals closely affiliated with the schools and, for the first time, will subject any limitations on NIL payments by even this narrow group to neutral arbitration review so that the NCAA cannot act as judge, jury and prosecutor.”

“Our brief outlines in clear detail both the appropriateness and the benefits of this approach,” Berman said. “The filed settlement terms today constitute a substantial improvement on the current status quo under which a much broader set of deals are prohibited under NCAA rules, and all discipline is carried out by the NCAA without any neutral arbitration or external checks.”

Finally, the updated settlement agreement also clarifies that the settlement only permits continuation of existing NCAA prohibitions on certain third-party NIL payments that are not legitimate commercial NIL transactions. All NIL agreements prohibited by NCAA rules after the settlement are already prohibited by NCAA rules without the settlement, according to attorneys.

Changes Coming to NCAA Sports

The agreement will resolve three pending antitrust lawsuits, House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA, and Carter v. NCAA. As part of the settlement, the NCAA and its conferences will pay more than $2.75 billion in damages to college athletes over a 10-year period, eliminate rules prohibiting schools from making direct payments to athletes, and dramatically expand the availability of compensation and benefits available to athletes, including by eliminating restrictions on the number of available athletic scholarships across all Division I sports. The total value of new payments and benefits to college athletes is expected to exceed $20 billion over the next 10 years, making it one of the largest antitrust class-action settlements in history.

“The Injunctive Relief Settlement will result in a foundational transformation to college sports, which will empower and benefit college athletes like never before,” plaintiffs’ supplemental brief begins. “In a sea change to the NCAA’s longstanding and long-defended rules, Division I college athletes will now share in approximately 51% of future athletic revenues—comparable to professional sports.”

The settlement provides damages to hundreds of thousands of current and former student-athletes at Division I schools. Under the proposed allocation plan the average recovery for a football or men’s basketball player at a Power 5 school would be approximately $135,000. The average recovery for a women’s basketball player at a Power 5 school would be approximately $35,000. More details about payments can be found at Hagens Berman’s FAQ.

According to attorneys, next steps depend upon the court, which will consider the newly filed information and either schedule another hearing or make a decision based on the papers filed today.

Find out more about the class-action lawsuit against the NCAA and its member conferences.

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About Hagens Berman and Winston & Strawn

The Winston and Hagens Berman teams previously prevailed in Alston v. NCAA as co-lead class counsel, which culminated in a unanimous Supreme Court opinion affirming that antitrust law applies with full force to NCAA rules. That ruling laid the groundwork for these settlements.

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs’ rights complex litigation law firm with a tenacious drive for achieving actual results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. Since its founding in 1993, the firm’s determination has earned it numerous national accolades, awards and titles of “Most Feared Plaintiff’s Firm,” MVPs and Trailblazers of class-action law. The firm’s cases have recovered more than $320 billion for its clients. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

Winston & Strawn LLP is an international law firm with 15 offices in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Its industry leading Sports Litigation Practice is co-chaired by David Greenspan and David Feher, both of whom worked on this ground-breaking litigation with firm Co-Executive Chair Jeffrey Kessler, as well as partners Jeanifer Parsigian and Adam Dale.  More information about the firm is available at www.winston.com.

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