🏅What hill is the NCAA willing to die on?

Hey there,

The NCAA and House plaintiffs had a deal worked out to change the entire business model and compensation method for college sports. That’s now in jeopardy, thanks to Judge Claudia Wilken’s recent decision to send them “back to the drawing board.”

The whole event made me think: Why don’t we take a step back for a moment? Who actually wants what here? What hills are Judge Wilken, the House lawyers, NIL collectives, and the NCAA itself willing to die on in this lawsuit?

So that’s what we’re looking at today. With the future of college sports on hold, this will catch us up on everything we need to know — the college sports industry’s biggest players, their motives, and how they intend to get what they want. Let’s get into it.

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You’re a loyal NIL Wire reader, so you’re familiar with how important the House settlement is. It’s been the topic of conversation for the better part of 2024 now, as it’s basically determining the future business model of college sports themselves. 

You can imagine the overall frustration, then, when Judge Claudia Wilken shot down the deal last Friday. In fact, she told both parties to “go back to the drawing board” – an indictment on what she saw as an incomplete agreement.   

Today we’re talking about exactly what went wrong with that deal, and what it means for the future of college sports itself. We’ll look at what exactly Judge Wilken didn’t like about the deal, and delineate which parties are happy, mad, and confused about the deal.

There’s four main players here: Judge Wilken, the plaintiffs, NIL collectives, and the NCAA itself.

Everyone’s got a slant, but sometimes it’s hard to cut through the jargon. Don’t worry though – per usual, we here at NIL Wire pride ourselves on making these dense legal issues easy to understand. We’re not writing to lawyers, we’re writing to you: the fans, athletic department officials, and athletes themselves.

Alright, let’s dive in. Here’s the big hold-up with House.

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