It looks like the NCAA is involved in a fresh new legal battle.
According to a report from Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated, lawyers filed a massive multimillion-dollar, antitrust class-action lawsuit against the NCAA on Tuesday in an effort to obtain retroactive educational payments for college athletes dating back to 2018. The case has two plaintiffs: former Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard and former Auburn track athlete Keira McCarrell.
Back in 2021, the NCAA lost a case by a unanimous decision in the Supreme Court that now requires the association to allow schools to give athletes as much as $5,980 a year in education-related compensation. The lawsuit claims that at least 5,000 athletes – and potentially more than 20,000 – are owed two years of back payments from 2018–19 and ’19–20 due to that court decision. If the NCAA were to lose the case, that would put damages at a minimum of $200 million and as much as $1 billion.
It would be a big loss to the NCAA, but Jeffrey L. Kessler, the co-executive chairman of Winston & Strawn LLP – the firm filing the suit against the NCAA – insists that the organization has plenty of money to spare.
“All we can do is tell you that the numbers are large,” Kessler told Sports Illustrated. “Despite all these NIL deals, the NCAA is doing great. There’s been no harm for consumer interest or competitive balance. I think most people would say that the NCAA and its various sports are successful as they’ve ever been. They just had the highest-watched women’s tournament in history by far and probably the most competitive parity in the men’s tournament.”
Kessler does not believe the notion that a lawsuit of this size could do any real damage to the NCAA.
“The collective revenues for the Power 5 conferences and NCAA every year is larger than the annual revenues of any sport in the U.S. except for the NFL. They are higher than the revenues of the NBA, MLB and NHL,” Kessler said. “This is not about crippling the NCAA. It’s about economic justice for their athletes.”
We’ll certainly have to see how this legal battle unfolds.
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