For those people who live normal lives, let me give a quick House Settlement update: the judge has informed the NCAA that she will not approve the settlement if they don't grandfather in all the roster spots they were eliminating. This is mostly a swimming, football, track, and cross country issue. I also believe baseball might have been negatively affected.
Concentrating on football, teams like UGA have historically carried a Roster of around 130 players. Only 85 were scholarship players. Then a group of PWOs got NIL money that might have come close to a scholarship, and then a final group likely got very little other than the bennies that come with being on the team.
The House settlement reduced the number of football rosters to 105, which meant a team like UGA had to let 25 WOs go. Multiply that by 136 teams, and you get thousands of players who no longer have a place to play, even if they are just practice players. The judge put the kibosh on that and said the NCAA had to come back with a plan to either grandfather all those players in or phase those roster spots out over time. If they don't do that, she will not approve the settlement, and the case will proceed to trial this summer.
What does this mean? There is no way they will walk away from this settlement. My guess is that they will implement something similar to the COVID year eligibility, ensuring that anyone currently on a roster can complete their eligibility. Alternatively, they may waive the entire restriction on roster limits.
This is good news for UGA. Smart is on the record that he didn't like this. With the Hope scholarship, plus being a school with more money than most, and being the school that practices harder than any others, losing those WOs was going to be tough. I am really glad to see this change taking place.
Concentrating on football, teams like UGA have historically carried a Roster of around 130 players. Only 85 were scholarship players. Then a group of PWOs got NIL money that might have come close to a scholarship, and then a final group likely got very little other than the bennies that come with being on the team.
The House settlement reduced the number of football rosters to 105, which meant a team like UGA had to let 25 WOs go. Multiply that by 136 teams, and you get thousands of players who no longer have a place to play, even if they are just practice players. The judge put the kibosh on that and said the NCAA had to come back with a plan to either grandfather all those players in or phase those roster spots out over time. If they don't do that, she will not approve the settlement, and the case will proceed to trial this summer.
What does this mean? There is no way they will walk away from this settlement. My guess is that they will implement something similar to the COVID year eligibility, ensuring that anyone currently on a roster can complete their eligibility. Alternatively, they may waive the entire restriction on roster limits.
This is good news for UGA. Smart is on the record that he didn't like this. With the Hope scholarship, plus being a school with more money than most, and being the school that practices harder than any others, losing those WOs was going to be tough. I am really glad to see this change taking place.
