Court Grants Preliminary Approval of Proposed Settlement in NCAA Volunteer Coaches Case

On January 6, 2026, Judge William B. Shubb of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California preliminarily approved a proposed $303 million dollar class action settlement in favor of a class of NCAA Division I coaches who worked in a volunteer coach position in a sport other than baseball between March 17, 2019 and June 30, 2023. 

Gustafson Gluek PLLC, along with Kirby McInerney LLP and Fairmark Partners LLP are lead counsel in the case.  The Court set the hearing on Final Approval for May 11, 2026.  In its opinion preliminarily approving the proposed settlement (linked below), the Court commented that: “The gross settlement amount of $303,000,000 represents over 100% of estimated damages to the class. This is an exceptional result for the class and is comfortably within the range of percentage recoveries that California courts have found to be reasonable.”

The case is Ray v. NCAA, pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, No. 1:23-cv-00425.  The Court’s opinion can be found here.