Jul 29, 2014 10:48 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The NCAA has settled another one of its ongoing legal battles and will establish a $70 million fund dedicated to head injuries.

According to the New York Times, the fund settles a class-action lawsuit former college athletes brought forward three years ago. The fund will affect multiple sports at all levels for both men and women.

Steve Berman, the plaintiffs' lead attorney suggested the lawsuit was necessary because the NCAA was not doing enough to take care of its student-athletes. The NCAA is still fighting to protect its model of amateurism in collegiate athletics, but the organization has recently moved to offer players better benefits.

"This offers college athletes another level of protection, which is vitally important to their health," Berman told the Times. "Student-athletes - not just football players - have dropped out of school and suffered huge long-term symptoms because of brain injuries. Anything we can do to enhance concussion management is a very important day for student-athletes."

The settlement, though filed Tuesday in Northern District of Illinois' federal court, is still preliminary and requires approval from Judge John Z. Lee.

The fund would implement a medical monitoring system and would bar any player who sustained a concussion from returning to their game or practice. It would also grant former college athletes to with neurological screenings meant to look for brain diseases or damage.

"We have been and will continue to be committed to student-athlete safety, which is one of the NCAA's foundational principles," NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline said in a statement. "Medical knowledge of concussions will continue to grow, and consensus about diagnosis, treatment and management of concussions by the medical community will continue to evolve.

"This agreement's proactive measures will ensure student-athletes have access to high quality medical care by physicians with experience in the diagnosis, treatment and management of concussions."

The NCAA is still waiting for a decision in the Ed O'Bannon antitrust class-action suit. Seeking an injunction to require the NCAA to better compensate student-athletes, Judge Claudia Wilken allowed a motion to dismiss the jury and decide in the case herself. The NCAA is also awaiting the National Labor Rights Board's decision on an appeal to their decision to deem college athletes employees and therefore allow them to unionize.

Both decisions could require drastic changes to the NCAA, far beyond the ones they are already making.

"I think this is a great resolution to an epidemic," Joe Siprut, the plaintiffs' co-lead attorney, told USA Today. "This is an issue that has plagued college sports for decades. I think that we're singlehandedly, through this case - I don't want to say resolving it because as long as football exists there will always be injuries - but I think we're addressing and confronting the issue in a way that has never been done before.

"I think that we're getting essentially everything that we could have gotten if we had gone all the way."

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