NIL Wire’s Post

As expected, the SEC and PAC-12 have joined the NCAA and the other Power 5 conferences in agreeing to a potential settlement of the pending class action litigation brought by current and former college athletes seeking to share in the profits generated from use of their name, image and likeness. The terms of the NIL settlement, which includes a revenue-sharing plan, must still be approved by Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California, who is presiding over the consolidated actions in House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA. Counsel for the plaintiffs has stated that the settlement will also feature a "mechanism" that he believes will make it easier for schools to rein in the marketplace for third-party NIL deals. It will be interesting to see how the NCAA attempts to implement this mechanism in a way that complies with federal antitrust laws and whether the settlement sparks any movement in Congress to advance legislation in this area. #NIL #NCAA #antitrust https://lnkd.in/eWTzwd36

Settlement discussions in the House v NCAA case are getting more serious. For those that need a refresher, the case has two components. 1. A backwards looking damages component, pursuant to which plaintiffs could potentially be awarded over $4billion. 2. A forward looking component that is seeking an injunction that will allow schools and conferences to directly pay #NIL compensation to athletes. As reported in this article, current settlement discussions on the forward looking piece include a revenue sharing model that schools can choose to opt into. And this would reportedly include an agreed upon revenue sharing cap of around $20M per school. While this is progress towards a new college athletics model, it wouldn’t be a long term solution. A settlement would only apply to the class members, which includes current and former college athletes. Since it doesn’t include future college athletes (and legally can’t), a freshman college athlete could come in next year and sue the NCAA for violating antitrust law based on the existence of a cap, which wouldn’t gain antitrust immunity unless it’s collectively bargained. In other words, the uncertainty surrounding the college athletics model won’t end with a settlement here. It will be interesting to watch it continue to play out. #nameimagelikeness #ncaa #collegeathletes #collegeathletics #sportslaw #LinkedInSports https://lnkd.in/gGXYdbFW

The NCAA announced the terms of a multi-billion-dollar settlement in the House v. NCAA class-action lawsuit. As part of the settlement, the NCAA will pay $2.75 billion in back-pay to former athletes. The Association also agreed to allow college athletes to receive pay directly from universities, breaking from its century-old policy prohibiting this practice. The announcement also revealed a new revenue sharing model between athletes and power-conference schools. Attorneys for the plaintiffs stated the settlement is the most fundamental and revolutionary change in the history of college sports and marks a significant turning point in how college athletes are compensated. What do you think of the settlement? Let us know in the comments! #ncaa #NIL #sportslaw #sportslawyer

In addition to his recent sit down with Charlie Baker, Chuck Todd of Meet the Press also discussed the current state of college athletics with Senators Corey Booker and Richard Blumenthal. As always, #NIL was a topic and Booker and Blumenthal discussed their draft bill that would preempt state NIL laws. But as both Senators acknowledged, the legal issues currently facing college athletics go well beyond NIL. Booker went so far as to say college athletics is “in crisis.” Which is one of the NCAA’s talking points. But college athletics as an entity is doing great. Fan interest and tv viewership are up. And the revenue being produced is at an all time high, with an additional billion per year coming into the system just from the expanded College Football Playoff. What Booker should have said is that the current model is in crisis. A model that heavily relies on the labor of FBS football players and Division I basketball players to fund the entire system (including orbitant salaries for many), but prohibits those athletes from directly sharing in the revenue they produce is no longer tenable, both legally and morally. College athletics will be fine. It’s that model that won’t survive much longer. #nameimagelikeness #collegeathletics #collegeathletes #ncaa #sportslaw https://lnkd.in/g-M22HYF

"The five autonomy conferences and the NCAA agreeing to settlement terms is an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come" 😂 🙄 AND PROVIDE CLARITY: 1. Employees or not 2. Can the cap be circumevented 3. How does a newly imposed Salary Cap not violate Anti-Trust Laws 4. Will athletes opt in 5. How if at all does Title IX apply 6. Why are non-P4 programs paying 60% vs. P4 at 40% 7. Media rights valuations 8. What protections, if any, are provided for future lawsuits 9. Who was this collectively bargained with 10. Conflicts of Interests everywhere (university level, athlete level, conference levels, P4 vs. G5 vs. FCS) Anything but CLARITY!!!! #NIL #nameimagelikeness #ncaa #revenueshare #housesettlement https://lnkd.in/eW7wJUmW

8 Million Dollar High School QB “We’ll give you $8 million to come play for our university.” - Anonymous Coach Wouldn’t it be nice as a high schooler to get that offer from a college athletic program to come play sports at that university? Wouldn’t it be nice to get that offer and not have to worry about losing your job, eligibility, or scholarship? That’s currently a NCAA recruiting violation called “inducement.” The player was induced by money to attend that university. Check out this article for the recent lawsuit by the state of Tennessee against the NCAA. https://lnkd.in/gMTwn_gZ The NCAA trying to place restrictions on NIL offers to high schoolers might violate antitrust laws. If so, NIL may become the new signing bonus for incoming freshman. #ncaa #collegeathletics #collegeathletes #sportslaw #antitrustlaw

For those who believe SCOTUS wants to take down the NCAA based on your reading of the Alston decision, here is the question presented in the petition: Less than three years ago, this Court unanimously recognized that NCAA Division I student-athletes, as laborers, have a legally cognizable interest in the education-related benefits they receive as NCAA eligible student-athletes. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Assoc. v. Alston, 141 S. Ct. 2141 (2021). Accepting the realities of modern-day college sports that have long been overlooked in lower courts, Alston observed that the "NCAA’s Division I essentially is the relevant market for elite college football and basketball," and that "there are no ‘viable substitutes.’” Id. at 2152. Because of this market dominance, “student-athletes have nowhere else to sell their labor.” Id. at 2156 (emphasis added). A student-athlete’s eligibility to access this unparalleled market is therefore highly valuable. The question presented is: Do elite student-athletes preparing for professional athletic careers have a business or property interest in their NCAA eligibility? SCOTUS said don't care to hear it. #ncaa

A new antitrust class action lawsuit, Carter v NCAA, has been filed against the NCAA and the Power 5 conferences. This case goes farther than the pending House v NCAA case and attacks the NCAA’s rules that restrict conferences and schools from compensating athletes for their athletic services. House is only about rules relating to #NIL compensation. The lawsuit seeks an injunction that prevents the NCAA from enforcing its no “pay for play” rules, and damages for the compensation that P5 football and men’s and women’s basketball players who played from December 2019 to the present would have received in the absence of those rules. A quote from the complaint: “These draconian, collusive rules prohibit what the NCAA refers to as ‘pay-for-play,’ but what anyone else would call market-value compensation. In college sports, only the athletes are treated as ‘amateurs.’” This lawsuit was very foreseeable. And it’s why the NCAA was/is still seeking an antitrust exemption. Until college athletics admits what some of its sports are (professional athletics), and crafts a model to reflect that, its legal problems are going to continue. Half measures (like Charlie Baker’s proposal earlier this week) that try to maintain the current model and structure aren’t going to work legally. People need to think much bigger and almost start from scratch. #collegeathletics #collegeathletes #ncaa #sportslaw

Check out this article on #NIL and reach out with any questions!

The NCAA lost another legal battle this past Friday. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction requested by the states of Tennessee and Virginia barring the NCAA from enforcing its NIL-recruiting rules that prohibit high school recruits and college athletes in the transfer portal from negotiating and signing NIL deals with third parties, such as NIL collectives and boosters, before enrolling at a college. The order also prevents the NCAA from enforcing its Rule of Restitution as applied to the foregoing NIL activities. Under the Rule of Restitution, the NCAA can retroactively impose punishments if a player competes based on an injunction that is later vacated. The judge also said that the NCAA’s NIL-recruiting ban likely violates antitrust law. What does this all mean? While the case is pending, the NCAA can't enforce its NIL-recruiting rules that prohibit high school recruits and college athletes in the transfer portal from negotiating and signing NIL deals with third parties, such as NIL collectives and boosters, before enrolling at a college. Although it is unclear whether the preliminary injunction applies to just Tennessee and Virginia or nationwide, the NCAA will likely revise its affected NIL rules or elect not to enforce them to put all schools on an equal playing field. #NCAA #NIL #collegesports #sportslaw