In reading the order, it appears about 80% of the complaint was dismissed. The parts that remain are because they were plead (written) correctly. The ruling was not based on actual evidence. It is not difficult to get past a pleadings motion to dismiss for a plaintiff. When you don't it means your case is crap (legal term). For the remaining counts the plaintiffs can try to develop discovery to prove their case. Seems like a real challenging case to me. I am not sure if settlement is even really an option because even though 99.9% of settlement agreements have language that neither side admits anything Iowa would be setting a bad precedent. Plus, prosecuting these cases is very expensive and you can be certain UI's lawyers will make the plaintiffs spend as much as possible to encourage them to eventually quit. Even if they can get through discovery they then have to survive summary judgment motions, motions in limine and then a trial.
This is not a rear end car accident case. It is very difficult to prove especially given that most of the players can be painted as disgruntled. Quite honestly some of the names I don't even recognize.
If there is a word for something similar to optimism but like 10 times more optimistic than that, it would be perfect to describe this post. I don’t see how you think setting bad precedent is more damaging for the football program than a drawn out discrimination lawsuit. I agree with the majority of what you are saying but I don’t think you are taking enough into account how damaging something like this is to a program in a sport where optics are very important. That doesn’t even go to mention how devastating it would be to lose a suit like this.