The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a statement of interest in House v. NCAA, expressing concerns that the settlement "may not 'cure the ill effects of the illegal conduct'" as it "allows the NCAA…to continue fixing the amount" schools can pay for NIL, according to Boise State law professor Sam Ehrlich, who adds: “The DOJ is essentially asking Judge Wilken to either (1) sever the revenue sharing cap from the settlement; or (2) essentially allow the cap to be a subject of future litigation. Whoa.” (link); Full filing, which includes the following: “Although the Proposed Settlement raises the level at which those payments are capped, that cap remains determined by agreement among competing employers (Division I colleges and universities) and restrains competition among schools for payments above the cap. Not only does this enshrine, for ten years, an agreement among competitors to limit compensation, a facially anticompetitive restraint, but the NCAA may attempt to use the cap’s incorporation into a court-approved settlement as a shield against future antitrust actions seeking more complete injunctive relief. Accordingly, the United States respectfully requests that the Court (i) decline to approve the Proposed Settlement or, in the alternative, (ii) make clear that approval of the Proposed Settlement does not constitute a judgment of the competitive impact of the Salary Cap Rule or a determination that the Salary Cap Rule complies with the antitrust laws.” (link)
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