Come on down, Miller Moss: You’re the next contestant on The Price (of the House v. NCAA injunctive relief) Is Right.
With Grant House and the other lead plaintiffs no longer enrolled as college students, the attorneys representing college athletes last week filed a motion asking the court to add Moss, Louisville’s starting quarterback, to the roster of class representatives.
Assuming his admission is granted, Moss, who played four seasons at USC before transferring to the Cardinals last year, will now be tasked with making sure that the injunctive relief component of the settlement process protects the interests of current college athletes.
In her June 6 order granting final approval of the $2.8 billion settlement, U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken noted that while it was not “necessary,” the injunctive relief settlement envisioned periodically adding new class representatives during the decade-long injunctive relief period. Moss is the first one to be added.
Now pursuing a master’s degree in social entrepreneurship at Louisville, Moss said in a sworn declaration that he first became interested in the NCAA’s rules governing “amateurism” several years earlier while at USC—and even wrote his undergraduate thesis on the subject.
“I have followed this case since shortly after it was filed on June 15, 2020,” Miller wrote. “I am interested in joining this litigation as a Class Representative because I feel it is the right thing to do. I recognize that I will not receive anything personally for serving as a Class Representative, other than the compensation and benefits made available to the class as a result of the Settlement. But personal gain is not my motivation for seeking to serve as a Class Representative.”
Moss did not respond to interview requests sent through his agent and Louisville’s athletic department.
Louisville, currently 7-1, is ranked No. 14 in college football’s AP poll and sits fourth in the ACC. Moss has thrown for 1,929 yards, 11 touchdowns and six interceptions, and he was named last week among the 10 finalists for the Johnny United Golden Arm Award, honoring the nation’s top upperclassman college QB.
The school has confirmed its plans to distribute to athletes the maximum $20.5 million allowable this year per the House settlement, spread among football, men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball and baseball. In an August interview with the Louisville Courier Journal, Cardinals athletic director Josh Heird declined to specify the team allocations, but said they would be based on “ranges” as opposed to fixed dollar amounts.
Moss’ pay this season has not been publicly reported, but he was expected to garner seven-figures in revenue-share and NIL payments after transferring from USC. Moss led the Trojans to a surprise, opening-season victory against LSU last year, but was later benched as starting quarterback after the team’s record slipped to 4-5.
Upon announcing his decision to transfer, Miller thanked his USC coaches as well as his thesis advisor, history professor Nathanial Rosenthal, “whose guidance steered me intellectually in ways I had not been before.”
Moss’ inclusion in the case potentially adds an element of House class conflict, by adding a high-profile, top-paid athlete from a major revenue sport. Alongside Grant House and former TCU basketball player Sedona Prince, Moss joins former Duke football player DeWayne Carter (now with the Buffalo Bills), Stanford soccer player Nya Harrison (now with the NWSL’s San Diego Wave), and Nicholas “Nicky” Solomon, who played lacrosse at Georgetown and North Carolina. Carter and former Illinois football player Tymir Oliver serve as representatives for the football and men’s basketball damages class, while Prince represents the women’s basketball damages class. House, Harrison and Solomon are the representatives of the additional sports damages class.
Moss, the son of renowned architect Eric Owen Moss, grew up in the wealthy Southern California enclaves of Pacific Palisades. A recent ESPN.com feature story of the younger Moss noted that, for his seventh birthday, his parents hired NBA star James Harden to make an appearance.
In 2022, while attending USC, Moss became the subject of a student conduct investigation after his roommate and former, Mo Hassan, accused him of harsassment. The incident, which did not involve law enforcement, resurfaced last year when TMZ obtained and published video clips of Moss going through Hassan’s personal belongings. Riley, for his part, called into question the timing of the leak, touting Moss as a “high-quality individual.” Nevertheless, Moss issued a public apology saying, “I regret my actions and have grown and learned from this matter.”
In January, following the wildfire that engulfed Pacific Palisades, Moss went viral on X for identifying a video showing two people playing basketball on the drive-way hoop of a destroyed house as being filmed at the house where he grew up. He criticized the “utter strangers” in the video for inhibiting the community’s efforts to rebuild. He later announced a youth football camp that would contribute its proceeds to the fire relief rescue efforts.
