Lawyers managing the $2.8 billion NCAA settlement suggested a substantial revision on Wednesday regarding roster limitations, proposing that athletes who lost their positions could play without being subject to the new limits for the duration of their eligibility.

Because a court ordered them to create a new plan, the lawyers suggested in court papers that schools should make lists of all the players they cut, expecting the agreement to be approved. This number could easily be in the hundreds, and maybe much higher.

The individuals referred to as “Designated Student-Athletes” in the recent legal document have the option of being invited to try out again for team positions, with no assurance of success, or transferring to different institutions.

However, these athletes won't be counted in the new team size limits that are part of the plan introduced last fall and first approved by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in October.

The proposal would also extend this exemption to high school recruits whose promised positions were subsequently withdrawn, with the duration of the exemption corresponding to the players' remaining college eligibility.

Wilken has agreed to the main parts of the settlement. This means each school can give up to $20.5 million directly to their athletes each year. Also, over $2.7 billion in past payments will go to players who said the NCAA and the five biggest conferences unfairly stopped them from making money from their name, image, and likeness.

The latest proposal finished two weeks of urgent talks after Wilken told the lawyers for both sides to go back to negotiating. He said the details about the number of players in the plan were not acceptable as they were written.

The proposal recommends substituting constraints on scholarships, such as the 85 allocated for football and 9.9 for men's wrestling, with limitations on team size, specifically 105 for football and 30 for wrestling. While universities have the option to provide scholarships to all players, this approach would incur significant financial costs, leading many to anticipate that non-scholarship or partially funded athletes will be excluded.

Wilken's sympathy for the numerous players losing their roster positions as schools geared up to implement the settlement terms was evident; approximately twelve recounted their experiences during an April 7 hearing.

Wilken told the lawyers to change that part of the agreement. The NCAA first replied to Wilken's idea, which included letting current players keep their spots, by saying they would not change anything. They argued that changing roster moves already made would cause more problems in a process that was already messy. Wilken told them they had to do it anyway, or the whole plan would be in danger.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs said they improved on Wilken's idea. They not only allowed schools to bring back players they had cut without it counting against their team limit, but also made this exception available for new schools.

The plaintiffs say that these changes to the agreement go beyond the protections the court asked for, according to their court document.

The lawyers pointed out that regaining their positions on the team is not assured for the athletes.

They wrote, “While the defendants argued that the changes to the agreement mean that individual schools and their sports departments can still choose which athletes are on their teams, this has always been true. It stays the same whether or not there are limits on team size.” They added, “The changes to the agreement make sure that people who lost or would have lost a place on the team because of the new team size limits will be in the same situation as if there were no limits. This means the team size limits do not affect them.”

The judge is likely to give people who are against the plan a short time to send in new objections before she makes her final decision. Steve Berman, one of the main lawyers for the people who sued, said earlier this week that those who object to the plan will not be happy with the new proposal.

Time is running out for the NCAA and its 1,200 member institutions, comprising over 500,000 athletes across numerous teams. The terms of the settlement were scheduled to be implemented by July 1, with football practice commencing shortly thereafter.