Attorneys working to address judge's qualms with NCAA settlement - ESPN

Attorneys negotiating a $2.78 billion settlement of class-action antitrust cases against the NCAA and the nation's biggest college conferences are working to clarify parts of the agreement that a judge wanted addressed before deciding whether to let the landmark deal move forward.

At a hearing two weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken declined to grant preliminary approval and expressed dismay with a plan to regulate and potentially restrict third-party name, image and likeness payments to athletes from booster-funded organizations called collectives.

Wilken set a Sept. 26 deadline for attorneys on both sides to report back to her with certain parts of the settlement agreement reworked.

«We've been making good progress in our discussions with the NCAA about how to answer the judge's questions and to provide some clarifications where the judge did not believe the language was sufficiently clear as to how these things will work,» Jeffrey Kessler, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs in House vs. the NCAA, said Tuesday. «And we feel confident that when we provide all this information, the judge will grant preliminary approval.»

The settlement

The NCAA, along with five major conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast, Pac-12 and Southeastern), and plaintiffs in three antitrust lawsuits related to athlete compensation agreed to a settlement in May. The deal pays out nearly $3 billion in damages to current and former college athletes who were denied opportunities to cash in on their fame. It also sets up a groundbreaking revenue-sharing system that will permit schools to direct more than $20 million per year to their athletes.

Wilken's issue with the part of the settlement that would attempt to rein in