Three groups representing current and former college athletes have raised objections to the landmark $2.7 billion settlement with the NCAA that would allow schools for the first time to directly pay student athletes.
As reported by Reuters, the groups lodged their challenges in a U.S. district court in California last week.
One group of opponents said the proposed settlement, which was submitted to the court last month, treats women athletes unfairly compared to men. The two other groups said the settlement would unfairly allow the NCAA to escape other antitrust claims.
The NCAA in a statement defended the settlement, calling it an "important step in the ongoing efforts to provide increased benefits to all student-athletes."
Attorneys Steve Berman and Jeffrey Kessler, who negotiated the deal for the plaintiffs, said Monday the objections had no merit.
"The settlement stands as one of the largest damages payments in antitrust history and a transformation of college sports that will benefit generations of athletes to come," Kessler said, as reported by Reuters.
A preliminary hearing on the settlement is set for Sept. 5. The settlement resolves three lawsuits that broadly claimed the NCAA’s rules prohibiting payments to athletes violated U.S. antitrust law. The NCAA has denied any wrongdoing.
The objection related to gender bias, filed by law firm MoloLamken, said the proposed settlement was structured in a way that “vastly” favors male athletes, especially football and basketball players.
In their objection, law firms Berger Montague and Freedman Normand Friedland said the proposed settlement would harm their pending antitrust case against the NCAA on behalf of students from Yale, Harvard and other Ivy League schools who claim they were denied athletic scholarships and compensation.
Law firm Korein Tillery, which also has separate pending lawsuits against the NCAA, argued that the proposed deal was short-changing athletes by potentially billions of dollars.
The settlement "allows the NCAA to check multiple items off its litigation wish list, while creating a byzantine system to insulate it from future lawsuits,” its filing said, according to Reuters.
