Lawyers for the plaintiffs in a proposed multi-billion-dollar settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences are asking a federal judge to award them $484.3 million in attorneys’ fees and costs, according to filing they made Tuesday.In addition, as permitted by the proposed agreement, the plaintiffs' lawyers also asked for the right to apply annually to a judge or special master for additional amounts that, according to the filings, could total roughly another $250 million.Nearly all ofThe documents come a little more than two months after U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken granted preliminary approval to the wide-ranging agreement, which would fundamentally change the structure of college sports. In addition to providing a $2.8 billion damages pool for current and former athletes over a span of 10 years, the deal would allow Division I schools to start paying athletes in any sport directly for use of their name, image and likeness, subject to a per-school cap that would increase over time.It is expected that the initial amount of the cap would be $20 million to $23 million for the 2025-26 school year.Also as part of the agreement, Division I athletics programs that provide these NIL payments would no longer be subject to longstanding sport-by-sport scholarship limits, but rather to sport-by-sport roster limits. In the first academic year after final approval of the settlement the roster limit in football, for example, would be 105. Many Power Five schools recently have had rosters of more than 125 players, according to data compiled by USA TODAY Sports through open-records requests. All of this is subject to final approval by Wilken, who has scheduled a hearing on the matter for April 7, 2025. And her ruling would be subject to appeal.One former college football player and his attorney tied up a monetary settlement in a previous college-sports compensation case by pursuing the matter to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with the objection based in part on the attorneys' fees and costs award. That bid ultimately failed, but it ended up delaying final resolution by about two years.If there are appeals in this case, the settlement agreement states that schools will be allowed to begin offering payments to their athletes and the roster limits would go into place for 2025-26, but damages money and payments for the plaintiffs’ lawyers would be held in escrow until all appeals are resolved.While the damages pool under the proposed settlement is $2.8 billion, lawyers for the plaintiffs said in their filings Tuesday that "expert and lay evidence indicates (the settlement) is likely increase benefits to college athletes by $20 billion or more" over the next 10 years. The filings described this as "one of the largest recoveries in antuitrust history."

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in a proposed multi-billion-dollar settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences are asking a federal judge to award them $484.3 million in attorneys’ fees and costs, according to filing they made Tuesday. In addition, as permitted by the proposed agreement, the plaintiffs’ lawyers also asked […]

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in a proposed multi-billion-dollar settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences are asking a federal judge to award them $484.3 million in attorneys’ fees and costs, according to filing they made Tuesday.

In addition, as permitted by the proposed agreement, the plaintiffs’ lawyers also asked for the right to apply annually to a judge or special master for additional amounts that, according to the filings, could total roughly another $250 million.

Nearly all of

The documents come a little more than two months after U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken granted preliminary approval to the wide-ranging agreement, which would fundamentally change the structure of college sports. In addition to providing a $2.8 billion damages pool for current and former athletes over a span of 10 years, the deal would allow Division I schools to start paying athletes in any sport directly for use of their name, image and likeness, subject to a per-school cap that would increase over time.

It is expected that the initial amount of the cap would be $20 million to $23 million for the 2025-26 school year.

Also as part of the agreement, Division I athletics programs that provide these NIL payments would no longer be subject to longstanding sport-by-sport scholarship limits, but rather to sport-by-sport roster limits. In the first academic year after final approval of the settlement the roster limit in football, for example, would be 105. Many Power Five schools recently have had rosters of more than 125 players, according to data compiled by USA TODAY Sports through open-records requests.

All of this is subject to final approval by Wilken, who has scheduled a hearing on the matter for April 7, 2025. And her ruling would be subject to appeal.

One former college football player and his attorney tied up a monetary settlement in a previous college-sports compensation case by pursuing the matter to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with the objection based in part on the attorneys’ fees and costs award. That bid ultimately failed, but it ended up delaying final resolution by about two years.

If there are appeals in this case, the settlement agreement states that schools will be allowed to begin offering payments to their athletes and the roster limits would go into place for 2025-26, but damages money and payments for the plaintiffs’ lawyers would be held in escrow until all appeals are resolved.

While the damages pool under the proposed settlement is $2.8 billion, lawyers for the plaintiffs said in their filings Tuesday that “expert and lay evidence indicates (the settlement) is likely increase benefits to college athletes by $20 billion or more” over the next 10 years. The filings described this as “one of the largest recoveries in antuitrust history.”