NCAA $2.8 Billion Deal Gets Appealed Over Title IX Issues (1)

The NCAA is already facing an appeal of the court-approved $2.8 billion antitrust settlement from a group of athletes who say the deal unfairly pays men more than women and doesn’t apply Title IX.

Current and former female-athlete objectors filed notice Wednesday that they would appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, hoping to overturn a federal trial judge’s June 6 approval of the settlement in which 90 percent of back damages will go to male athletes.

The appeal is the first sign of formal pushback that threatens to upend a settlement designed to provide former and current athletes with $2.78 billion in past damages.

Other components of the settlement, including a salary cap as well as team roster limits, might also face separate appeals.

John Clune, an attorney with Hutchinson Black & Cook LLC who is representing the objectors, said the deal’s calculation of damages is based on a $1.1 billion error. “We don’t oppose the total amount of the settlement,” Clune said. “It’s the breakdown in distribution that we think violates federal law.”

Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities receiving federal assistance.

“It is sad that these objectors and their counsel are going to callously delay the distribution of damages to more than one hundred thousand class members so that they can pursue a quixotic Title IX objection that does not belong in this antitrust case,” Jeffrey Kessler of Winston & Strawn LLP, who represents the settling plaintiffs, said in a statement.

The NCAA said in a statement the sports organization is moving forward with the full implementation of the settlement “to deliver this massive win for student-athletes.”

Clune said the deal over-prioritizes men’s football and basketball and lacks a commitment to women’s basketball and other sports, including Olympic sports.

“We are already starting to see some schools talking about cutting sports,” Clune said. “It’s a big problem that is much broader than just our objection to the back pay damages.”

Under the deal, male athletes stand to receive six figures worth of back pay while many of the women are “looking at getting paid like $450 as a result of the settlement,” Clune said.

Athlete plaintiffs in the NCAA settlement are also represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. The NCAA is represented by Wilkinson Stekloff LLP.

The case is In re College Athlete NIL Litig., N.D. Cal., No. 4:20-cv-03919, 6/11/25.