In April, the NCAA settled a lawsuit from University of North Carolina tennis player Reese Brantmeier to create a $2 million fund to compensate college tennis players who were adversely affected by the NCAA”s prize-money restriction rules. Now, a federal judge has called the settlement into question and scheduled a new hearing for June 18.
According to The Carolina Journal, Judge Catherine Eagles issued an order calling for Brantmeier’s lawyers to file a new brief and answer her key questions.
Her order requires the lawyers to address, “the apparent absence of injunctive relief for enrolled students playing tennis for their schools, the sufficiency of the notice on that point, whether that dichotomy creates a conflict of interest between and among class members, and the scope of the Released Injunctive Claims.”
According to WRAL News, Brantmeier first filed the lawsuit in 2024 after she was ineligible to compete in her freshman season while the NCAA investigated her eligibility. Brantmeier had competed in the 2021 U.S. Open as a high school junior and won $50,000, but, in line with the NCAA regulations at the time, she forfeited a majority of that prize money.
Prior to this settlement, student-athletes in the NCAA were held to accepting no more than $10,000 in prize money before entering the NCAA.
If the federal judge does not make sweeping changes to the settlement, Brantmeier and other current student-athletes — up to 17,000 people — will be entitled to collect their previously forfeited prize money from the new NCAA fund.
In settling with Brantmeier, the NCAA agreed to eliminate restrictions on prize money for all student-athletes, not solely tennis.
"Reese and Maya deserve a lot credit for taking this thing on, doing it for themselves but also for future student-athletes and not just in tennis but for all sports," said Brantmeier’s attorney, Jason Miller. "It's a pretty remarkable accomplishment."
