Tennessee AG sues NCAA over ‘NIL-recruiting ban’

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed suit against the NCAA on Wednesday over its “NIL-recruiting ban,” taking the same aggressive posture of the University of Tennessee as it confronts a new NCAA investigation into whether it violated athletics recruiting rules.

The attorney general’s lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Tennessee federal court. It mentions the UT investigation as an example of the “unlawful restriction” of the NCAA’s NIL policy.

Skrmetti told Knox News, part of the USA TODAY Network, that “we sued to protect the rights of current and future Tennessee student-athletes from Memphis to Mountain City, from Union City to Unicoi County, from Covington to Cleveland, and everywhere in between.”

Skrmetti argues the NCAA violates federal antitrust laws by putting a “shifting and opaque series of rules and guidelines” around athletes’ benefits for their name, image and likeness.

It’s similar to the language UT Chancellor Donde Plowman used in a scathing email to NCAA President Charlie Baker on Monday denying that UT broke NCAA rules involving NIL benefits for athletes.

“Vague and contradictory NCAA memos, emails and ‘guidance’ about name, image and likeness has created extraordinary chaos that student-athletes and institutions are struggling to navigate,” Plowman said. “In short, the NCAA is failing.”

Tim Meads, the attorney general’s press secretary, said in a written statement “this lawsuit is focused on upholding the law and protecting all student-athletes in Tennessee, not any given institution.”

So the lawsuit and the NCAA investigation into UT are not directly connected. But this is the second time in the past 10 months that Skrmetti has challenged the NCAA in a way that supports UT. And both instances involved athletes’ NIL rights.

Last March, Skrmetti threatened legal action against the NCAA if it banned the UT football team from postseason play as punishment in the Jeremy Pruitt recruiting scandal. He argued that such a ban would violate state law because it prohibits players’ ability to earn money through NIL.

UT avoided a postseason ban. And now Skrmetti’s fight against the NCAA is closely aligned with UT once again.

Why Tennessee attorney general is suing NCAA

Skrmetti, along with Virginia, filed the lawsuit in hopes of loosening the NCAA’s grip on NIL rules.

It seeks to deregulate the process by which recruits can negotiate NIL contracts and communicate with schools directly about NIL opportunities before enrolling or signing a letter of intent.

The NCAA has relaxed some restrictions in recent months. But a patchwork of state laws still dictate how recruits can or cannot negotiate NIL deals. Those state laws change frequently, and the NCAA policies are murky and ever-evolving.

“Student-athletes are entitled to rules that are clear and rules that are fair,” Skrmetti said in a statement to Knox News. “… The NCAA’s restraints on prospective students’ ability to meaningfully negotiate NIL deals violate federal antitrust law. Only Congress has the power to impose such limits.”

While the NCAA is loosening some NIL rules, it’s trying to clamp down with others.

On Jan. 10, the NCAA Division I Council proposed prohibiting an NIL collective from negotiating, communicating or providing benefits to recruits or transfers until after they had signed a letter of intent, enrolled at the school or practiced with the team.

The proposal could be adopted as early as April.