Editor's Note: Judge Wilken has issued a quick ruling allowing objectors to respond to the newest agreement, meaning there won't be any resolution until after May 16.
Today was supposed to be the day. It was supposed to be the day that the adjusted House v NCAA settlement was finalized approved by Judge Claudia Wilken and the new era or revenue sharing began. Instead, the college football world, and Nebraska football players, coaches and fans in particular are left still waiting in limbo.
Last week, Wilken told the sides, who had agreed to the settlement that they needed to amend it to include a phasing in of roster limits or a grandfather clause. Either aspect was designed to allow players who were on a roster to stay (or return) to the roster for the rest of their college career. For the Huskers, the judge’s ruling seemed like a reprieve, considering their roster is still over 120 players strong.
Nebraska football waits as NCAA settlement hits unexpected snag
On Wednesday night, the two sides submitted their amended agreement and perhaps because it’s really not what the judge asked for, there hasn’t been an official ruling. Which means that for at least another day, the Nebraska football team and the rest of the sport exist in limbo.
The new agreement in the House vs NCAA settlement takes a few steps in the general direction of Wilken’s directive. According to Sam Ehrlich what the new agreement would do is allow schools to go over the 105 player roster limit until players who were freshmen this year graduate or move on. However, one key caveat is that schools would not be required to do so. It would be entirely up to them.
So what does that mean for Nebraska? If the judge accepts this amended agreement, the biggest takeaway is that the Huskers would be allowed to keep everyone who is on the roster now, until they leave or graduate.
Considering how often head coach Matt Rhule has talked about how tough cutitng down is and was going to be, this would be an out for him. AD Troy Dannen has specifically advocated for getting rid of the limits. This would do that, at least for a while.
It would allow Nebraska to keep its walkon program. For a few years anyway.
The question now is what will Judge Wilken do? It doesn’t appear she’s going to issue her ruling tonight. If she rejects the adjusted settlement - and it does not do what she said she wanted, in particular it does not force colleges to give roster spots to people they don’t want to - then chaos reigns.
If the settlement is rejected, it goes to court, but that won’t be have any sort of resolution for years. In between now and whenever that’s finished (5 years from now isn’t out of the question) schools and individual states will essentially do whatever they want when it comes to NIL but revenue sharing will not be a thing.
For now we sit and wait and see what happens. Today was the day it was supposed to be resolved, but the Nebraska football program and the rest of the college sports world is still sitting in the dark waiting for the chaos to end.