NCAA’s NIL rules frozen as judge grants injunction
The NCAA cannot punish students or athletics program boosters for name, image and likeness recruiting inducements — at least for now — as a result of a federal judge’s preliminary injunction on Friday afternoon.
The injunction is not a final ruling in the case of Tennessee and Virginia vs. NCAA, but the NCAA is in danger of fully losing its ability to enforce its NIL rules, which have been called into question by the attorneys general of both states.
“The NCAA’s prohibition likely violates federal antitrust law and harms student-athletes,” U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker wrote Friday.
Although the related court case is still active, Corker’s injunction means that athletes are free to negotiate NIL-related compensation before they enroll at a school. Though the judge is from the Eastern Tennessee District, his decision applies to the entire country.
NCAA president Charlie Baker, who was speaking to reporters when the judge issued his ruling, reiterated that his organization is seeking a federal antitrust waiver to address NIL issues.
“I would like something that’s very limited here, and I’m perfectly happy to have some federal oversight with regard to that limitation,” Baker said, according to USA Today. “The sort of broad-stroke antitrust exemption that people have talked about — I don’t think that’s necessary. I’m looking for something that just will end the uncertainty and the chaos around some of the very basic rule-making that’s a part of all this.”
Baker added his opposition to making cash payment a legal part of the recruiting process.
“I definitely don’t think it should be [allowed] right now, given the fact that there is no transparency [concerning what athletes make from NIL deals], there’s no accountability, and there’s lots of examples of people misrepresenting truth in reality to kids who then end up chasing that ... and discover that what they thought was there isn’t,” he said, per USA Today.
The case stems from the NCAA’s decision in January to launch an investigation into the Tennessee football program over alleged recruiting violations. It centered on Nico Iamaleava, a five-star quarterback recruit coming out of high school, signing a deal with Tennessee’s primary NIL collective, Spyre Sports Group, reportedly worth $8 million.
Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman addressed a biting letter to Baker last month, claiming the NCAA is not doing its part to establish clear rules for student-athletes, their families or universities.
“Instead, two and a half years of 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. In short, the NCAA is failing,” Plowman wrote in part.
The AGs of Tennessee and Virginia filed their antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA the next day.
“Without the give and
take of a free market, student-athletes simply have no knowledge of their true NIL value,” Corker wrote Friday. “It is this suppression of negotiating leverage and the consequential lack of knowledge that harms student-athletes.”
Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement to news outlets Friday that his state would continue pursuing its litigation “to ensure the NCAA’s monopoly cannot continue to harm Tennessee student-athletes.
“The NCAA is not above the law, and the law is on our side.”
CELEBRATE LIFE OF LONGTIME HERALD WRITER JIM MARTZ
Longtime Miami Herald readers and fans of the Miami Hurricanes and of tennis take note, because Jim Martz was well-known to all of those groups. He passed away at age 80 on
Dec. 30 after suffering a stroke while hospitalized for heart issues.
A celebration of Martz’s life will be held on Friday, March 8 at 2 p.m. at Stadium Court of the Frank Veltri Tennis Center, 9101 NW Second St., Plantation. Those who wish to attend the event are asked to visit the Facebook page of Florida Tennis magazine and fill out and submit the RSVP form.
Martz was a Miami Herald sports writer from 1970 to 1991, mostly covering Hurricanes football and other UM teams along with tennis. He was a Canes historian who literally wrote the book (five books, actually) on UM sports. He became the editor of CaneSport magazine and later
the CaneSport website after leaving the Herald, and continued involved with those until the end.
He also founded Florida Tennis and led that magazine and website until selling just last summer.
Martz was a past vice president of the U.S. Tennis Writers Association, and a member of the MiamiDade County Tennis Hall of Fame who also wrote several books about that sport, too.
ETC.
Soccer: Jaedyn
A
Shaw’s first-half brace helped the U.S. women’s national team cruise to a 4-0 victory over Argentina in a Group A match of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup on Friday in Carson, Calif. Coupled with a 5-0 win over the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, the U.S. secured a spot in the quarterfinals with one group match left against Mexico in Carson on Monday. The quarterfinals will be played March 2-3 in Los Angeles before the tournament moves to San Diego for the semifinals on March 6 and the final on March 10.
Tennis: Jasmine Paolini A of Italy ended the magical run of qualifier Anna Kalinskaya at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, topping the Russian 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 to win her second WTA career title. It was the first WTA 1000level tournament victory for Paolini. Through the week, Kalinskaya eliminated some of the biggest names in women’s tennis, including three top 10 players — Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the third round,
Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals and World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland in the semifinals.
NFL: Golden Richards,
A part of a trick play that helped the Dallas Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII, died of congestive heart failure at his home in Murray, Utah. He was 73.
Swimming:The University
A of Wyoming community is remembering three members of the school’s swimming and diving team, who died Thursday afternoon in a single-car crash on a Colorado highway. Campus president Ed Seidel on Friday identified the three students as Charlie Clark, 19, from Las Vegas; Luke Slabber, 21, from Cape Town, South Africa; and
Carson Muir, 18, from Birmingham, Ala. Two more members of the men’s team suffered injuries that aren’t believed to be life-threatening, Seidel said in a statement released by the university.