Explaining the House Settlement’s “Designated Student-Athlete (DSA)” Label
One of the more confusing and controversial elements of the now-approved House Settlement is the “Designated Student-Athlete” (DSA) provision. The right for certain athletes affected by roster limits to benefit from this label was a late addition to the settlement, added only after Judge Wilken initially refused to approve the settlement unless certain changes were made to mitigate the harm caused by “the immediate implementation of the roster limits.”
Given all of this, there is a lot of understandable confusion from athletes, parents, and their advocates about what the DSA label means and what athletes qualify to receive its benefits. I’ve added this page to try to give a brief explanation of the label and what happens if there’s a dispute between an athlete and a coach and/or athletic department about the label.
Note: The information presented is for general information purposes only. It is not presented as legal advice and should not be construed as such, and represents the author’s own personal interpretation of the terms of the House v. NCAA settlement agreement. It also may not reflect the views of the author’s employer, Boise State University. As I will note below, Class Counsel (Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and Winston & Strawn LLP) retain the exclusive right to bring disputes on behalf of athletes over implementation of the Settlement Agreement. Should you have any further questions or wish to raise a dispute regarding the topics presented on this page, please reach out to them.
Why do we have a DSA label?
As noted above, the Designated Student-Athlete (DSA) label was created through by the House settlement parties (i.e., Class Counsel and the defendant NCAA and Power Five Conferences) after an initial denial of settlement final approval based on concerns over harm caused by immediate implementation of the roster limits.
Many House settlement objectors who had objected to the roster limits specifically had called for mandatory roster limit grandfathering (where schools would not be able to cut players due to roster limits) or a phase-in approach to the roster limits where they would not take full effect until a certain period of years.
However, the NCAA was unwilling to consider either of these proposed solutions. In their various briefs pushing back against the objectors, they insisted that schools must retain the right and ability to manage their own rosters as they see fit. They also expressed concerns that mandatory grandfathering would lead to Title IX issues, as schools would find it difficult to balance opportunities between male and female athletes if they did not have complete control over those opportunities.
With that context in mind, the DSA label is intended to balance two things:
Mitigating the immediate harm of the roster limits to affected athletes; and,
The right for schools and individual teams to retain control over their rosters.
So what exactly is a DSA?
The DSA provision was proposed as a compromise between those two balancing factors.
Under the terms of the Fourth Revised Settlement Agreement (Article 4, Section 1):
Member Institutions, in consultation with their athletic departments, shall be permitted, in their discretion, to exceed NCAA or conference roster limits with respect to any “Designated Student-Athletes” for the duration of the Designated Student-Athlete’s athletic eligibility. Each Member Institution must prepare and report a list of its Designated Student-Athletes in good faith within thirty days of Final Approval, with a copy to Class Counsel. For clarity, each Member Institution retains its current discretion to decide independently which student-athletes will be on its rosters, including whether to exceed the roster limits with respect to its Designated Student-Athletes. Nothing in this settlement or NCAA rules restricts the ability of Member Institutions to allow student-athletes who were previously on the Member Institution’s roster and who transferred as a result of being told by an institutional staff member that they would be removed from that roster due to the implementation of NCAA or conference roster limits from transferring back as a Designated Student-Athlete for that Member Institution.
To translate: athletes considered as a “DSA” will not be counted towards roster limits as long as they are eligible to play college sports. That’s great!
However, the terms also state that the schools still have the discretion to decide which athletes they want on a roster. In other words, they do not have to keep DSAs on their rosters if they choose not to, nor do they have to exceed the roster limits with any DSAs if they choose not to. This means that schools do not have to take advantage of the DSA provision at all, and can continue operating within the bounds of the new roster limits if they see fit. (Which is definitely a limiting factor to this whole arrangement)
The good news is that athletes given the DSA label retain that label even if they go to a different school. This means that if an athlete’s original school still wants to stick wtih the roster limits, or if the athlete wishes to transfer on their own accord, they will still not count towards roster limits, even at their new school. This, according to the parties, gives an extra benefit to DSAs and balances out the problems with schools retaining their discretion over roster sizes despite this new label.
Who qualifies as a DSA?
Under the terms of the Fourth Revised Settlement Agreement (Article 1, Section 1(j)):
““Designated Student-Athlete” is any student-athlete who a Member Institution attests was or would have been removed from the Member Institution’s 2025-2026 roster due to the implementation of roster limits who was either:
a. certified as eligible for practice or competition at the Member Institution (i.e., on a roster whether as a recruited or walk-on player), during the 2024-2025 Academic Year, prior to April 7, 2025, including student-athletes who transferred, or
b. a student-athlete initial enrollee at a Division I Member Institution for the 2025-26 Academic Year who, prior to April 7, 2025, was recruited to be, or was assured by an institutional staff member they would be, on the Member Institution’s roster for the 2025-2026 Academic Year.
So, to translate, DSAs are any athlete who either:
Was on a Division I team during the 2024-25 Academic Year but either was cut or would have been cut due to roster limits; or,
Was recruited to start as a freshman in 2025-26 but whose roster spot was cut or would have been cut due to roster limits.
One note on this: Since the DSA label is intended purely as a stopgap measure to address issues related to “immediate implementation” of the settlement, athletes cut later due to roster limits will not have a DSA label. So if, for example, an athlete is on a school that does not opt in to the settlement until 2026-27 (and is thus not subject to roster limits until then), the athletes they cut at that point will not be DSAs.
How are athletes declared DSAs?
As noted in the language above from the terms of the Fourth Revised Settlement Agreement (Article 4, Section 1):
Each Member Institution must prepare and report a list of its Designated Student-Athletes in good faith within thirty days of Final Approval, with a copy to Class Counsel.
In other words, the schools will prepare a list of DSA on their own and submit them to the NCAA by thirty days after the settlement was given final approval. Since final approval was given on June 6, 2025, the deadline for schools to submit their DSA list has been communicated to the schools as July 6, 2025.
Under these terms, there’s no need for athletes to apply for a DSA label… though if you are an athlete in this situation it might a good idea to communicate with your coaches or athletic department staff to make sure that you will be included on that list.
One note on the wording from above: while the schools are empowered to prepare the lists on their own, the settlement says the schools must prepare these lists and must do so in good faith. Rumors are flying around about coaches refusing to prepare these lists, not knowing that they have to prepare these lists, or deliberately leaving certain (or all) athletes off of their lists because they do not want to give other schools a competitive advantage. Coaches (or athletic departments in general) do not have the power to refuse to place a qualified athlete on a list for any reason — the only reason an athlete cannot be included is because they do not qualify for the label.
If you are an athlete at an institution where this is the case, reach out to class counsel. They have the exclusive right to submit a dispute on your
So what happens if a coach or athletic department staffer is refusing to put me (or my child) on the DSA list?
If you are an athlete who qualifies for the DSA label and your school (or former school) has refused to place you on their DSA list, reach out to class counsel (Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and Winston & Strawn LLP). Judge Wilken has appointed a special master — Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins — to help any disputes regarding implementation of the settlement agreement: a scope that necessarily includes the DSA label.
However, under that same section, class counsel "has the authority to exclusively monitor and enforce this Injunctive Relief Settlement on behalf of Injunctive Class Members" and all claims "asserted on behalf of student-athletes shall be prosecuted exclusively by Class Counsel." This means that only class counsel can bring up a dispute to Magistrate Judge Cousins on behalf of an athlete.
In other words, if you are an athlete and you have an issue with how your school (or former school) is handling the DSA label, you must go through class counsel. They will bring the dispute on your behalf.