Four more female athletes are in the process of appealing the House vs NCAA settlement, which marks the second collection of women athletes planning to appeal the court decision, which was finalized on June 6.

The women are arguing the structure of damages payments violates Title IX’s gender equity statute.

On June 11, CBS Sports reported eight athletes have signed onto the motion to appeal and at least six of whom were women that played at the College of Charleston. Two others are from Vanderbilt and Virginia.

According to CBS Sports, the settlement is set to pay out $2.8 billion in back pay to former athletes, but funds are on hold until the appeals process reaches a conclusion.

NCAA president Charlie Baker told Yahoo Sports that the organization currently has $285 million ready to distribute once it gets the court’s permission. Though damage payments will be halted by the appeal, it should not impact revenue sharing which is scheduled to start on July 1.

“We support a settlement of the case, just not an inaccurate one that violates federal law,” objecting attorney John Clune wrote in a statement to CBS Sports. “The calculation of damages is based on an error to the tune of $1.1 billion. Paying out the money as proposed would be a massive error that would cause irreparable harm to women’s sports.” 

Attorney Leigh Ernst Friestedt represents the four other women who plan to appeal the ruling.

“The House Settlement allocates $2.4 billion to men and only $102 million to women,” Friestedt wrote to CBS Sports. “This significant disparity constitutes a violation of Title IX. Charlotte, Mai, Katherine and Brooke look forward to the opportunity to appeal this decision with the 9th Circuit on behalf of millions of female student-athletes.”

Despite the appeals, the NCAA is optimistic the settlement ruling by Judge Claudia Wilken will be upheld.

The House settlement is set to pay $2.8 billion in damages to athletes who were unable to earn name, image and likeness dollars before it was legalized in 2021. Additionally, it allows schools to directly share revenues with athletes for the first time. 

As CBS Sports reported, the House settlement used a formula to determine how to distribute money. Football and men’s basketball athletes who received full scholarships at Power Five schools from June 15, 2016, to Sept. 15, 2024, are set to receive 90 percent of the more than $2 billion settlement. Women’s basketball athletes will receive 5 percent, and all other athletes will split the remaining 5 percent. 

The female athletes filing the appeal are part of the third class. Most played volleyball or soccer at their respective schools.

“The settlement suggests schools would have paid male athletes over 90 percent of their revenue over the past six years as though Title IX didn’t apply,” Clune wrote. “If Nike wants to do that, that is their choice. If the school, or a conference acting on the school’s behalf tries to do that, they are violating the law. They can either pay the athletes proportionately or they can return all of their federal funds. But they can’t do both.” 

Wilken wrote in the settlement approval that there’s nothing in the settlement itself that forces schools to contradict Title IX. She overruled objections that specifically claimed the settlement itself did not properly follow Title IX.

Instead, the settlement left the defining of Title IX compliance up to the schools and governing bodies.