Concerning the $2.8 billion anti-trust lawsuit of House v. NCAA, Judge Claudia Wilkins stated on April 23rd she would deny the settlement and throw it out and the two sides would have to go to trial unless they can figure out how to grandfather in players on the current rosters. If they couldn’t present something within fourteen days, she would trash the case.
What Watkins wanted was protection for players from getting cut due to roster limit reasons. On May 8th, the settlement presented to her stated, “Any current or incoming athlete who was cut or would have been cut as the result of roster limits can be put on a list by his or her school and those athletes then will not count against the limit for the duration of their eligibility.”
What does this mean for Nebraska and Matt Rhule? If the judge approves the final terms of the settlement, which is expected, Nebraska can choose its own roster limit. Today Nebraska’s roster is at 124, if it so desired, Nebraska could bring back players that left via the portal in recent months or it can add players from the portal or junior colleges this summer. If they wanted to, they could once again have a camp for graduate transfers and junior college players and add players to the roster. Jaylyn Gramstad and James Williams both found their way on to the team through similar camps.
We know at least one more player, if not two, will be added to the roster when Mike Ekeler finds his punter or punters. If there is no roster limit, then why not bring in two?
If Nebraska was to get their roster back up to 135 players by the middle of the summer, the school can then create a list of 30 players who it says would have been cut to get down to 105. They can then retain those players, and Nebraska would be 30 players over the limit this season. That number would only go down as those players leave the program. So, if you were a player on that list, you’ve got a golden ticket because you can never be cut due to roster limits, even if you transfer. You can’t be cut from your new school either.
Matt Rhule appears to have gotten lucky and won’t be forced to have those hard conversations with players telling them they are no longer part of the team. If the Judge accepts the terms, more than likely Nebraska will be around that 120 to 125 range and have 20 players over the roster limit. As the players graduate or run out of eligibility the roster will get smaller over the next few years. All schools will eventually get down to 105 but considering some of the players on the list could be incoming freshmen, 105 wouldn’t be reached until 2028 or 2029.
Judge Watkins has yet to make her final ruling, but she had no issues with the settlement other than protecting players from being cut from the roster. That looks like it’s been resolved and it’s hard to believe Nebraska will dip below 120 players. Perhaps the walk-on program isn’t as dead as Husker fans were mase to believe.
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