NCAA barred from enforcing NIL rules under injunction
A federal judge on Friday barred the NCAA from enforcing its rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation from being used to entice recruits, granting a request for a preliminary injunction from the states of Tennessee and Virginia and dealing another blow to the association’s ability to govern college sports and more than 500,000 athletes.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker in the Eastern District of Tennessee undercuts what has been a fundamental principle of the NCAA’s model of amateurism for decades: Third parties cannot pay recruits to attend a particular school.
Corker wrote that the NCAA’s stance likely violates antitrust law with Congress so far unwilling to give the association an antitrust exemption.
The judge said athletes with a limited window are harmed irreparably by not being able to know their true value before committing to a school.
“The NCAA fails to show how such relief will cause any harm that outweighs the irreparable harm that student-athletes will face in the absence of an injunction,” Corker wrote.
The NCAA said it would review the ruling and will talk with its member schools about possible policy changes.
ELSEWHERE Salary cap up $30.6M to a record $255.4M
The NFL’s salary cap for 2024 will be $255.4 million, up a record $30.6 million from last year.
The cap number has gone from $198.2 million in 2020 to $182.5 million in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic. It increased to $208.2 million in 2022 and $224.8 million last year.
The increased cap total could impact how teams use the franchise tag. The 15-day window to apply the tag to impending free agents began on Feb. 20.
In other news Friday, the Raiders coach Antonio Pierce announced his full staff, and former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is the assistant head coach and exDolphins coach Joe Philbin is the senior offensive assistant.
Also Friday, Robbie Gould is reportedly returning to the Chicago area to coach high schoolers. The former Bears and 49ers kicker has been named the new head football coach at Rolling Meadows High School, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
Rolling Meadows is the school Gould’s former 49ers teammate Jimmy Garoppolo graduated from in 2010.
High schools: Santa Rosa Montgomery High junior runner Hanne Thomsen became the first Sonoma Country high school athlete to pick up an NIL deal this week. Thomsen was one of dozens of high school and college runners picked up by New Balance recently in an NIL flurry. Thomsen was an All-American as a sophomore and had the fastest 5-kilometer cross country time in the state last year of 16:49.2 with her victory at Nike Portland XC.
Marisa Ingemi
Golf: Former Women’s PGA Championship winner Sei Young Kim moved from second place into a tie for the lead at the LPGA Thailand tournament. She was tied with Madelene Sagstrom and Patty Tavatanakit.
Tennis: Iga Swiatek was upset by qualifier Anna Kalinskaya 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the Dubai Championships.