Lawyers dealing with the $2.8 billion NCAA agreement suggested a big change on Wednesday about how many players teams can have. They proposed that athletes who lost their spot could still play without counting towards the new limit, as long as they are still eligible.

The court told the lawyers they had to create a new plan. The lawyers suggested that schools should make lists of all the players they didn't choose, because they thought the agreement would be accepted. This could be hundreds of players, or even more.

These students, called "Designated Student-Athletes," might be asked to come back and try out for the team, but they aren't sure to get a place, or they can choose to go to other schools.

Anyway, those athletes won't count towards the new team size limits that were announced last fall and approved by Judge Claudia Wilken in October.

The plan would also give the exemption to high school students who were promised places but lost them. This would last as long as those players can play in college.

Wilken has approved the main parts of the agreement. This agreement allows each school to give up to $20.5 million each year directly to their athletes. It also includes over $2.7 billion for players who said the NCAA and five biggest conferences unfairly stopped them from making money from their name, image, and likeness.

The newest idea was the result of two weeks of quick work. This happened because Wilken told the lawyers for both sides to go back and negotiate more. He said that the part of the plan about how many players a team could have was not okay.

The plan suggests changing the rules on how many scholarships a team can give. For example, in football, they want to change from 85 scholarships to a maximum of 105 players on the team. In men's wrestling, the change would be from 9.9 scholarships to 30 players. Schools could give scholarships to all players, but this would be expensive, so many people believe some players might not get a scholarship or only get a small one.

Wilken clearly felt sorry for the hundreds of players who lost their spots on teams as schools started getting ready to use the rules of the agreement. About twelve players told their stories at a meeting on April 7.

Wilken asked the lawyers to change that part of the deal. The NCAA first said no to Wilken's request, which included letting current players stay in their spots. They said changing things that were already happening would cause more problems. Wilken told them to do it anyway or the whole plan would be in danger.

The lawyers for the people who sued said they improved on Wilken's idea. They found a way for schools to take back players they had let go, and this would not affect their team limit. Also, this special rule could now be used for players going to a new school.

The people who started the lawsuit think the changes to the agreement are more than what the court asked for, according to their court paper.

The lawyers said it's not certain the athletes will get their places on the team back.

They wrote that the defendants said the changes to the agreement meant schools could still choose which athletes were on their teams. But they argued this was always true and didn't change, even with limits on team size. They also said the changes make sure students who lost their place on a team because of the new size limits will be in the same situation as if the limits were never used. This means the size limits do not affect them.

The judge will likely give people who oppose the plan a short period to submit new objections before she makes her final decision. Steve Berman, one of the main lawyers for the people who brought the lawsuit, said earlier this week that those who oppose the plan will not be happy with the new proposal.

The NCAA and its 1,200 schools with over 500,000 athletes are running out of time. The rules of the agreement were planned to start on July 1, and football practice begins soon after.