On Thursday, Judge Claudia Wilken approved the proposed settlement agreement between the Sam Keller plaintiffs and the defendants, NCAA, EA Sports and Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC)—$20 million with the NCAA and $40 million with EA Sports and CLC. In an attempt to avoid similar video game related liability in the O’Bannon case, the NCAA argued the $20 million settlement should cover any misappropriation of likeness claims arising from NCAA-branded video games, but Judge Wilken disagreed. Her decision to handle the two similar cases separately would …
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Big 12 Commissioner Critical of NCAA
At the beginning of Big 12 media days on Monday, July 21, commissioner Bob Bowlsby focused his state of the league address on to the NCAA and its rule enforcement procedures.
Bowlsby joins the continuously growing population of NCAA bashers by calling into question the NCAA enforcement wing’s efficiency. While claiming the system is broken and that the NCAA has allowed cheating to pay off, the commissioner pointed out that the NCAA Infraction Committee hasn’t held a hearing in over a year. He also expressed …
Continue ReadingNCAA Steps into the Northwestern Union Debate
The NCAA filed an amicus brief on behalf of Northwestern to reverse a decision from a regional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that ruled the school’s football players are university employees. The filing followed briefs submitted by Northwestern and six Republican members of Congress in support of the university.
The debate is still ongoing since the NLRB allowed the university to appeal the regional board’s decision. If the NLRB affirms, the case could go before federal court. Meanwhile, the voting results of Northwestern football players …
Continue ReadingPlayers Are Harmed Regardless.
To start off the final round of filings, the plaintiffs in the O’Bannon trial submitted a brief addressing the court’s questions peppered at the end of the trial and rebutting the arguments articulated by the NCAA.
At the end of the trial, Judge Claudia Wilken rigorously asked fundamental questions to determine whether the plaintiffs sufficiently established that the NCAA has violated antitrust law. The plaintiffs reiterated in their brief that pinpointing the buyer and the seller in this case is pointless. Regardless of who the …
Continue ReadingO’Bannon Trial: The Ball is Now in the Hands of Judge Wilken
After 24 witnesses over 15 days of trial, it has finally come to an end, with a final round of filings scheduled to end on July 10. Presiding Judge Claudia Wilken is expected to render her decision by early August. No matter who wins, there will be appeals.
During the last day of the trial, the NCAA articulated the plaintiffs must show all the elements in an antitrust case: buyer, seller, market, product, agreement, restraint, antitrust injury and victim. The NCAA further argued its rules …
Continue ReadingProduct Endorsement Takes a Front Seat in NCAA Trial
Day 12 of the O’Bannon v. NCAA trial began with the NCAA calling SEC Executive Associate Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, Greg Sankey, to the stand. Sankey spent much of his time justifying amateurism for the court, and Judge Wilken appeared especially interested in product endorsement.
Up until this point, the case has mostly revolved around the use of player names and likeness in video games and television broadcasting. When Sankey’s testimony began to address product endorsement by schools and sports programs, Judge Wilken began …
Continue ReadingC-USA Commissioner: Don’t Open a Pandora’s Box
When he took the stand in the O’Bannon trial, Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky warned if the plaintiffs win, the world of college sports would become a “horrible place.” If student-athletes are allowed to sell the rights to their names, images, and likeness, a “corrupting influence of money” would overpower and materialize college sports.
Banowsky further expressed his worries when he described “exploitative” boosters who would flock to manipulate these 18 or 19-year olds and their families. In doing so, he mentioned Nevin Shapiro, a …
Continue ReadingThe Big Ten Commissioner: If Players Get Paid, No More Rose Bowl is Likely.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany took the stand in the O’Bannon trial. Appeared as a witness for the NCAA, Delany reiterated the NCAA’s argument that paying student-athletes goes against the league’s principle. However, he seemed to have gone too far when he said, “when the basketball season is over, we probably ought to just put a lock on the gym. If [the players] want to play they should just go to a playground and go play, but they don’t need to be with our …
Continue ReadingDay 7 of O’Bannon Trial: Lengthy Testimonies from Both Sides Continued
The O’Bannon trial continued with more witnesses from both sides appeared in Judge Claudia Wilken’s courtroom on Wednesday. The University of South Carolina president Harris Pastides and the women’s athletic director at the University of Texas Christine Plonsky were among the NCAA’s witnesses while Electronic Art’s chief legal officer Joel Linzner appeared as one of the plaintiffs’ witnesses.
Pastides, a member of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors and of a committee in charge of the league’s governance reform, testified that the school’s revenue …
Continue ReadingPlaying Basketball for a Division I School is a Hobby?
According to the NCAA manual, it is. “The Principle of Amateurism” of the manual states that “[s]tudent participation in intercollegiate athletics is an avocation, and student-athletes should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises.” Further, “[s]tudent-athletes shall be amateurs in an intercollegiate sport, and their participation should be motivated primarily by education and by the physical, mental and social benefits to be derived.”
The logic for the NCAA is that because student-athletes are amateurs in an intercollegiate sport, whose participation is an avocation, …
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