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A federal judge dismissed an antitrust lawsuit Monday that had been brought against the NCAA by several former college basketball players, including Kansas standout Mario Chalmers, after ruling its claims fell outside the four-year statute of limitations.

The lawsuit, which included 16 total players who played before June 16, 2016, claimed that the NCAA had enriched itself by utilizing their names, images and likenesses to promote its men’s basketball tournament. That date in 2016 is the earliest date for players to be included in the House v. NCAA antitrust settlement awaiting final approval from a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer pointed toward a four-year statute of limitations for federal antitrust violations, despite the lawsuit contending that the law continues to be breached by the NCAA’s use of the players’ NIL in March Madness promotions.

Chalmers famously hit a tying 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left for Kansas in the 2008 title game against Memphis, a highlight that remains a staple of NCAA Tournament packages. The Jayhawks went on to win the championship in overtime.

“The NCAA’s use today of a NIL acquired decades ago as the fruit of an antitrust violation does not constitute a new overt act restarting the limitations clock,” Engelmayer wrote in the 34-page decision. “Instead, as the NCAA argues, the contemporary use of a NIL reflects performance of an aged agreement: a contract between the student-athlete and the NCAA under which it acquired footage and images of the plaintiff.”

[Related: NCAA passes rules to prepare schools to pay players directly]

Engelmayer also noted that the plaintiffs were part of the class in O’Bannon v. NCAA, the 2015 case that helped to usher in the age of NIL payments so the lawsuit was not demonstrably different from other settled cases involving the athletes.

There are a number of other active suits filed against the NCAA on similar antitrust and NIL grounds. Former Villanova Wildcat Kris Jenkins, whose buzzer-beating 3-pointer won the 2016 men’s national championship against North Carolina, filed one earlier in April on his own rather than joining one of the existing suits. As he told ESPN, “I feel like it’s different from those [lawsuits], and the NCAA has shown that it is different from a lot of other things that have happened in the past just because of the magnitude of the situation, the shot, the financial gains for the NCAA and the unlawful rules that they had in place that prohibited all of us from being able to benefit.”

The key to Jenkins’ case – that buzzer-beater that Villanova and the NCAA profited from – occurred two months before the June 16, 2016 cutoff that had the suit of Chalmers et al dismissed. However, Jenkins also played during the 2016-2017 season for Villanova as a senior: whether another judge will echo Engelmayer and say this was all part of an “aged agreement,” or that it’s indeed a different case, remains to be seen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Fanstake recently raised $6.25 million in seed funding to continue building a platform that lets college sports fans crowdfund potential NIL payouts as a way to entice athletes to attend their school.

College sports’ future financial structure remains uncertain as legal proceedings and legislative discussion continue amid the teardown of existing NCAA oversight. But regardless of upcoming changes, Fanstake CEO Greg Glass foresees schools needing to find new revenue sources to pay their players and fund their athletic programs, one way or another.

“The biggest thing for us was, how do you expand that donor base? Because today it’s just the high net worth, affluent alumni that are contributing,” Glass said. “Can you tap into the fanatical fan base beyond that?”

Courtside Ventures led the latest funding round, with participation from Will Ventures, Susa Ventures, Scrum Ventures, Myriad Ventures, Alumni Ventures and others. Fanstake previously raised a $3 million pre-seed round.

Fanstake has created pages for hundreds of athletes already, including all Division I football and men’s and women’s basketball players, where fans can pool financial offers contingent on a given player choosing to attend—or stay at—a certain school. For example, Louisville backers offered a combined $88,000 to Fanstake ambassador Nate Ament as the basketball recruit chose his destination. Ament ultimately signed with Tennessee; Volunteer Fanstakers had contributed $13,405, which Ament will receive in exchange for promoting Fanstake online.

Fanstake returns unsuccessfully staked money as account credits for future opportunities. Glass says about 18,000 users to date have combined to offer nearly $500,000 combined.

In the next phase of development, Fanstake is adding gamification elements, such as rewards that accrue as users offer players more money. 

“We are focused on athletes getting fair market value as much as they possibly can get,” Glass said. “Getting the fans the ability to participate in a way where it’s engaging and fun for them ends up helping the schools.”

For Courtside Ventures, the investment is its first directly NIL-related play.

“We’ve been spending a good part of four years now looking at the NIL space and no exaggeration have probably looked at just about 100 different opportunities,” Courtside Ventures principal Cort Post said. “It was not until this one where we just, we kind of jumped on the opportunity of finally something that we felt could be venture scale.” 

Post added that Courtside took comfort in Fanstake executives’ experience. Glass, along with Fanstake co-founders Alex Boisvert and Donnie Flood, previously led adtech company Bizo, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2014 for $175 million.

“I don’t have a perfect answer for exactly what Fanstake will look like in the future compared to kind of their beachhead today, but we get comfortable with that,” Post said. “If you pair the right founder with the right market and enough disruption, they’re gonna figure something out that works.”

Look at Sacramento State, man. They are trying their absolute hardest to get into a major conference, they are throwing money into athletics and making hires like Mike Bibby for basketball: 

They then go and get Shaq to be the GM. That’s just smart business. There’s not a man on this planet who will do an ad deal faster than Shaq. Doesn’t matter what, he’s on every commercial just raking in money. Now you get him assisting with brand deals, NIL deals, recruiting, that’s how you become a powerhouse in the mid-major world. I say that loosely, because, well, Sacramento State simply doesn’t win. 

What they should do is simple though. Load up on former NBA players kids. You already got Shaq’s son there. They should reach out to every single player they played with, see if they want some sort of role and make Sacramento State NBA university. Why not? You’re Sacramento State. It’s not like you’re competing for titles, go outside the box with it. Hell, just run back the 90s Kings and see what their kids are up to. That team fucking ruled.

Rocky Widner. Getty Images.

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Yeah, I know Peja’s kid just committed to Illinois. Hard to beat that out when Illinois is becoming a Balkan empire and you got Brad Underwood doing this: 

It does feel weird seeing a Lakers star help a former Kings star. I know it was back in the day, but those teams shouldn’t be helping each other. I don’t care that Shaq and Bibby played for a combined 12 teams, I think of them as a King and Laker. All I know is they got me thinking about Sacramento State, so it’s already a win for them. Just send Shaq out on recruiting trips like it’s Blue Chips all over again. The man was made to be in this role for college basketball and just remember: