Amelia Island, Fla. - If Judge Claudia Wilken denies groundbreaking housing v. NCAA settlement this week, the University of Louisville may pay it directly to athletes, track and field director Josh Heird told the Courier Magazine.

“It’s probably the path we’re going,” Hurd said at the ACC spring meeting. “The more control you have on the situation, the better. It’s a little bit disconnected from external entities, collectives, doing things. So I think that’s the path we’re going to go.”

The settlement was initially approved in October and would provide $2.8 billion in back damage compensation for athletes who were unable to profit from zero between 2016 and September 15, 2024. Starting from July 1, starting from July 1, each school will share income for $2025-26. Heird has "very confident" that Wilken will approve the agreement, although one aspect delayed her decision for more than a month.

Wilken’s version of housing settlements is not a scholarship limit, but a preliminary approval of the established roster cap. This structure will result in the loss of attractions by thousands of athletes across the country. Heird said it had little effect on Louisville's roster "compared to other peers". "An opponents objected to the roster restrictions at a final approval hearing in Oakland, California on April 7.

Their testimony apparently led Wilken to propose a two-week lawyer to modify the concept of roster caps. She advised her grandfather to be among athletes on the existing roster. Four meetings of executives at Electric Power (Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12) agreed to provide an optional grandfather model for the school. Wilken said on May 7 that she would allow opponents to respond to the NCAA and the Powers Conference by Tuesday. The plaintiff and the NCAA must respond in turn.

As track and field departments across the country prepare for Wilken's decision (approved or denied), the latter will undermine college athletics and potentially send lawsuits back to trial - How do you move forward from L?

Well, there are several states that have laws that allow schools to pay directly for college athletes, including Kentucky. The Commonwealth passed Senate Bill 3 in March, revising its previous name, image and similar legislation so that state universities can operate legally in the proposed revenue sharing model of the House settlement. Yahoo's Ross Dellenger Sports reported last week that the athletic director predicted that many schools would use state laws to start paying athletes, regardless of whether Wilken denies the certain settlement. An advertisement tells Yahoo! : "What can NCAA do?"

Hurd said Louisville could use state law in this way. If the solution is rejected, L's U will not be watched to the $20.5 million cap. Instead, paid athletes are just "budget limits," Hod said. “But I think it’s the budget limit right now.”

If the settlement is approved, L plans to allocate $20.5 million in its college sports during the 2025-26 track and field year. "There are several variables" and L's U is thinking about how to allocate cash:

One, will the housing settlement provide any guidance when it is approved?

Two, which movements are driving revenue? (Historically, football and men's basketball.)

Third, which sports have attracted the attention and interest of the school? (Football, men's basketball, women's basketball, volleyball and baseball will come to mind soon.)

4. Where is Louisville's chance of being particularly successful? (See No. 3)

Although Louisville has a common understanding of the percentage of collapse, Heird refused to share these numbers through sports because they were “not fixed on the stone yet.” However, Front Office Sports reports that the Electric Power Conference School is expected to spend 75% of its $20.5 million on its football program. Texas Tech reported that the seasons of the defeats broke down to 74%, 17% to 18% for men's basketball, 2% for women's basketball, 1.8% for baseball, and the rest were other sports. That's $15.17 million for football, $3.69 million for men's basketball, and $410,000 for women's basketball.

The University of Kentucky approved the creation of Champions Blue, LLC about 80 miles east of Louisville to work hard to keep up with the changing landscape of college sports. LLC will effectively act as a holding company that includes UK track and field athletics, so it can adapt faster, effectively, creatively to changes in the industry.

Blue Championships Blue will be hosted by British President Eli Capilouto, or else it will be composed of "external experts". Track and field director Mitch Barnhart said the experts would be people in contact with the UK, business partners of the Sports Department and other UK officials in professional sports, who can provide an outdoor viewpoint. The purpose of the Board is to help the UK better understand how university track and field continue to develop during and after the proposed House settlement. Therefore, the board will meet regularly with Barnhart and Capilouto to discuss opportunities for revenue growth.

Is L's U studying a similar recombination?

“With everything about college track and field, now is a good time to take a step back and watch what others are doing,” Hend said. “And, as I told our staff, we don’t need to be ahead of everything we do. Let the landscape develop a little bit and see what others are doing, the pros and cons of what makes the most sense to us. Then, once we feel like we have the information we need to make a decision, we make the decision.”

Contact Payton Titus, a university sports enterprise reporter, at ptitus@gannett.com and follow her on x @petitus25.