Michigan Wolverines Boss Happy with One Aspect of Recent House-NCAA Decision

Michigan Wolverines athletic director Warde Manuel, like many in his profession, have been working overtime getting ready for the House vs. NCAA settlement to conclude.

Recently, the movement on the case — which has been in process for nearly a year — reached a pause. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered that the NCAA and the power conference commissioners work to rectify a part of the settlement that she asked them to consider when she first heard it for final approval a few weeks ago.

She has asked them to work to grandfather in current student-athletes who might be cut as a result of the new roster limits imposed in the settlement.

When she initially approved the settlement, many FBS schools started working toward next season under the assumption that the 2025-26 athletic year would include those roster limits. Per Yahoo Sports, Wilken considered that “premature.”

Given that she’s holding up the final approval to ensure that current student-athletes aren’t injured by the settlement, it’s clear some within the NCAA and the power conferences didn’t take that seriously.

At least one athletic director, Manuel, is glad Wilken drew a line, as he told Yahoo Sports recently.

“This is what we should be doing,” he said. “I’m glad she’s decided to force a step-down period to this number as opposed to just immediately doing it. It was wrong for us to go to the (roster) number in just one year.”

Manuel admitted that preparing for the upcoming settlement has required hard decision on his end. The Wolverines have a budget now for 140 fewer student-athletes than they supported in the 2024-25 athletic year. Many of them, he said, have already made decisions.

Some schools are making those decisions for the student-athletes and making cuts to make sure they’re under the limits should they be imposed.

After Wilken’s decision, the Wolverines had to go back to the spreadsheets.

“When it came out, I asked my staff to run the numbers about what it means and what we have to put back into the budget. It does have a financial implication,” he said.

It’s not certain what the grandfathering of these student-athletes will mean to the settlement. But Wilken made it clear something must be done or she might not approve the full settlement, which would have massive implications for college athletics and the three cases folded into the settlement.