How is college golf affected by potential NCAA settlement?

As the NCAA, major college athletic conferences and plaintiffs in three antitrust lawsuits in federal courts in California close in on a comprehensive settlement proposal that would pay current and former college athletes billions of dollars in damages and dramatically alter how current and future athletes are compensated, lawyers for the plaintiffs in a fourth case signaled on Tuesday evening that they are seeking to keep the association and the conferences embroiled in a similar litigation.

That fourth case is set for a hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Colorado who is considering the association’s and conferences’ request to have the matter transferred to California, where it likely would be folded into the cases moving toward settlement.

Pending remaining approvals — including approvals from the courts — such a consolidation would smooth the NCAA’s path to finally resolving a set of cases that began in June 2020, but are rooted in litigation that has had the NCAA on edge for 15 years due to the continuing efforts of plaintiffs’ lawyers Steve Berman, and, more recently, Jeffrey Kessler. Earlier Tuesday, lawyers on both sides of the three cases seemingly headed toward settlement expressed confidence to USA TODAY Sports that they will prevail on having the fourth case moved to California.

Meanwhile, the ACC and Big 12 both voted Tuesday to approve the proposed legal settlement, according to ESPN. The other three remaining Power Five conferences will vote later this week. The NCAA Board of Governors also must approve the deal.

If the bid to move the fourth case to California is rejected, it could continue in Colorado. If that happens, the NCAA, the conferences and the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the cases seemingly headed toward settlement may have to deal with lawyers who wrote in a filing Tuesday evening that “it seems likely” that one of their plaintiffs “will opt out of any such settlement to continue to litigate their claims in this case … plaintiffs expect that many other athletes will opt out as well and could seek to join this case to seek better and fairer terms for athletes.”

At the moment, college golfers are not part of the damages class — although it’s possible that could change. In theory, any athlete could be able to receive payments from schools, just as any athlete can have NIL deals, including with a collective. 

Garrett Broshuis, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the fourth…