On September 16, 2016, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael M. Cousins signed a stipulated order to produce redacted versions of the NCAA’s 2010 broadcasting agreement with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting. This 2010 agreement was extended back in April for another eight years for a rights fee of $8.8 billion.
This order comes after all five major collegiate athletic conferences similarly agreed to reveal their own television deals. The plaintiff student-athletes have argued that they need the conferences’ broadcasting agreements along with other business documents in their effort to challenge the conferences’ assertions about their member schools’ financial positions and about the importance of amateurism to college sports.
In the underlying suit at hand, the student-athletes are challenging the NCAA’s rules that prevent universities from paying college athletes more than “grant-in-aid,” which is currently capped at the full cost of attending school.