Most people who remember the National Collegiate Athletic Association concussion litigation know it for one thing: a 2019 settlement that created a $70 million medical monitoring fund for former college athletes. What far fewer people realize is that the underlying case, In re: National Collegiate Athletic Association Student-Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation (MDL No. 2492), never actually closed. It is still active in Chicago’s federal court, before U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah, with 558 pending individual actions as of September 2026, per the official U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation case report.
The 2019 Settlement Didn’t Resolve Everything
The 2019 class settlement established a medical monitoring program, funded at $70 million, available to anyone who played an NCAA-sanctioned sport at a member institution on or before July 15, 2016, regardless of whether they were ever diagnosed with a concussion. That settlement covers screening and monitoring, not compensation for an athlete’s actual injuries.
What the 2019 settlement specifically did not resolve were individual personal injury claims, lawsuits seeking compensation for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering tied to a diagnosed brain injury or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) linked to concussions sustained while playing college sports. Those claims were preserved, and many of them are still working their way through the same MDL, just as individual or conference-specific lawsuits rather than one combined class action.
Why Individual Lawsuits, Not a Class Action
Courts have been skeptical of certifying one enormous class for individual injury damages in this litigation, because the extent of each athlete’s brain injury, medical history, and specific sport and position vary enormously from case to case. That is part of why more recent activity in this MDL includes individual and conference-specific lawsuits, for example, cases naming individual athletic conferences as defendants, rather than a single new class-wide settlement covering everyone at once.
In practice, this means former student-athletes with a documented brain injury generally need to bring their own claim, rather than simply relying on the existing medical monitoring settlement to receive compensation.
Who May Still Have a Claim
You may want to have your situation reviewed if you, or a family member, played an NCAA-sanctioned sport, particularly football, hockey, soccer, or another contact sport, at any point up through July 2016, and have since been diagnosed with a concussion-related brain injury, post-concussion syndrome, or CTE (which is sometimes only diagnosed posthumously). Families of former athletes who have passed away and were later found to have CTE may also have a wrongful death claim.
Why This Case Is in Chicago
Like several other major product liability and injury mass torts, the NCAA concussion litigation was consolidated before a single federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois to manage shared discovery and pretrial issues efficiently. That consolidation continues to govern how new individual and conference-specific cases move forward today, even years after the original 2019 settlement was finalized.
Frequently Asked Questions
I already receive medical monitoring under the 2019 settlement. Can I still file my own claim?
Potentially, yes. The medical monitoring program and an individual damages claim are separate things. Monitoring does not pay for an existing diagnosed injury; a personal injury claim is a separate legal process.
What if I played after July 2016?
The 2019 medical monitoring settlement class is generally limited to athletes who played on or before July 15, 2016, but that cutoff does not necessarily bar a separate personal injury claim if you were injured after that date. Your specific timeline needs individual review.
Do I need a CTE diagnosis to have a claim?
Not always. CTE can currently only be definitively diagnosed after death, so many living claimants pursue claims based on documented concussions, post-concussion syndrome, or other diagnosed brain injuries instead.
Talk to an Illinois Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney
If you or a family member suffered a serious brain injury from playing an NCAA-sanctioned sport, the traumatic brain injury attorneys at Phillips Law Offices can review your athletic and medical history and explain whether you may have an individual claim beyond the existing medical monitoring settlement, at no cost to you. Families of athletes who passed away may also want to review our page on Illinois wrongful death claims. Call (312) 346-4262 or contact us online to discuss your situation.
