Lacking foresight, NCAA playing defense

The NCAA is on its heels again, playing defense of its archaic amateurism rules after missing an opportunity to get out in front of an issue.

Five years ago, a federal judge ruled against the NCAA in an antitrust lawsuit brought by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon, who claimed the association and its member schools and conferences had been inappropriately profiting from athletes’ names, images and likenesses without compensating them.

The NCAA took an L, but it was far from a death knell for college sports. In fact, the NCAA rallied. An appellate court overturned Judge Claudia Wilken’s ruling that schools should be permitted — though not required — to pay athletes up to $5,000 per year for the right to commercialize their names, images and likenesses.

Turns out that was a pyrrhic victory. The decisions from O’Bannon did not protect the NCAA from further attacks on its rules against athletes being paid for being athletes.

“There was never a prohibition on that,” Michael Hausfeld, who was the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the O’Bannon case, told The Associated Press. “There was just silence. (The court) just said the schools can’t pay. That’s extremely important. But the endorsers can.”

Last week, California’s governor signed into law a bill that prevents colleges and universities in the state from prohibiting its athletes from making money from things like endorsements or autograph signings. Politicians in other states, who have taken note of growing public support for college athletes being able to cash in on the billiondollar business their work and talent makes possible, were quick to jump on board. In these divided times, politicians are reaching across the aisle to take down the NCAA.

By the end of the week, lawmakers in at least 10 more states had said they would follow California’s lead — some more aggressively than others. California’s law is set to take effect in 2023. A bill filed in Florida would go into effect next year if passed.

The NCAA earlier this year formed a working group, led by Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, to come up with a way that athletes could be compensated for their names, images and likenesses.

“You now see probably what in physics would be the most delayed reaction to an action,” Hausfeld said.