Report: New update emerges on NCAA roster limit proposal

The House Settlement is still needing a few changes before it could be passed by the case’s judge in California. One of those key ones could apparently soon be completed by the powers that be per the latest reporting on Sunday.

According to sources speaking to Ross Dellenger at Yahoo Sports, the NCAA and the power leagues in it are working towards grandfathering-in roster spots as the biggest hang up right now before the approval of the settlement. This could make way for the passing of it in time for the deadline of Wednesday this upcoming week.

“The NCAA and power conferences continue to take steps toward permitting schools – at their discretion – to grandfather-in roster spots, sources tell @YahooSports,” Dellenger tweeted this evening as an update to a story last week. “They recently shared such plans with plaintiff lawyers and objectors.”

“During meetings this week among NCAA and power conference executives and attorneys, a proposal to phase-in the new roster limits has emerged, multiple sources tell Yahoo Sports. However, no plan has been finalized as leaders work to find the solution to a judge’s order last week to protect athletes on existing rosters and assure the approval of the settlement — an agreement expected to usher in revenue sharing with athletes,” wrote Dellenger in that article on Tuesday. “Such a move — the grandfathering-in of roster positions — comes with a bevy of questions, concerns and uncertainties.”

This comes after roster sizes had shrunk over the course of this school year in preparation of the House Settlement. Those decisions, along with ones related to budgeting, were since deemed as “premature” by Claudia Wilken, the judge in this case, despite her approving the settlement in a preliminary fashion back in the fall with leagues and programs working from there to prepare the players whose spots would no longer be there post-settlement by July 1st. However, Wilken ruled two weeks ago that she would not pass the settlement unless those roster spots were phased back or grandfathered in as part of it.

It’s unclear what exactly would be presented or how it would be given to Judge Wilkens on Wednesday. Per Dellenger, though, they’re moving in the direction of schools handling grandfathering-in those spots “at their discretion”.

“The current belief among multiple college administrators is that the brief will permit schools, at their own discretion, to protect or grandfather-in any current player on a roster and those cut this year due to roster limits,” Dellenger wrote. “A school would be expected to track their protected roster spots with a rolling list of exceptions. Those protected athletes would presumably roll off the exception list as their eligibility expires.”

There’s much to determine still of how this change is worded and possibly implemented pending approval from the court. Teams could soon be undoing the roster changes they made in planning ahead, though, based on this trending that way going into this week’s deadline.