Roster Limit Changes Not Offered In Latest Filing On 2.8 Billion Ncaa Lawsuit Settlement

Attorneys working on the 2.8 billion legal settlement designed to reshape college sports filed a brief Monday night that did not include changes a judge suggested regarding team roster limits, saying such a late change to that rule would create havoc.

The plan on the table, the attorneys said, "is a vast improvement over the status quo" and the offered only a few tweaks to the sprawling deal announced last year that will clear the way for schools to begin sharing millions in revenue with their athletes and pay hundreds of millions more to former and current athletes who said they were illegally prevented from earning money.

The filing came in response to U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken's suggestion last week that the terms of the roster limit rules be adjusted "to grandfather in a group of rostered people" set to lose their spots on teams if the caps come into play.

The defendants - the NCAA and the nation's five largest conferences - said such a move would "cause significant disruption." They said countless roster moves have already been made in anticipation of the settlement going into effect on July 1.

"These decisions, in turn, cascaded into tens of thousands of decisions by individual student-athletes," the attorneys said. "Many kept their pre-existing roster spots and may now receive scholarships, because the roster limits were designed to capture the average number of participants across a season and thereby minimize disruptions from the transition. Some transferred to new schools to seek roster spots and enhanced opportunities for athletic competition. ... while implementing a 'grandfather' provision might benefit some athletes, it would, at the same time, upset the settled expectations, enrollment decisions and other preparations of numerous other student-athletes and member institutions."