Beginning of the end for the NCAA

[BDKJMU]

Gonna be even more of a free for all than it is now. Long article, just pasted the 1st half. BYW Virginia AG Miyares is a JMU grad..

NCAA can't enforce NIL rules after judge grants injunction

A federal judge in Tennessee granted a preliminary injunction Friday afternoon that prohibits the NCAA from punishing any athletes or boosters for negotiating name, image and likeness deals during their recruiting process or while they are in the transfer portal.

The injunction is not a final ruling in the case, but the judge's decision will likely have an immediate and dramatic impact on how NIL deals are used in the recruiting process.

"The NCAA's prohibition likely violates federal antitrust law and harms student-athletes," U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker wrote in his decision Friday.

NCAA rules prohibit student-athletes from signing NIL contracts that are designed as inducements to get them to attend a particular school -- one of the few restrictions in place for how athletes can make money. For example, the NCAA recently announced sanctions against Florida State football because a member of its coaching staff connected a prospect with a booster collective that works closely with the Seminoles. The collective made a specific offer to the player, who was considering transferring from his current school to Florida State.

The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia argued that the NCAA is illegally restricting opportunities for student-athletes by preventing them from negotiating the terms of NIL deals prior to deciding where they want to go to school. The lawsuit was filed Jan. 31, one day after University of Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman revealed in a letter to the NCAA that the school's athletic department was being investigated for potential recruiting rules violations.

In Friday's ruling, Corker determined that the attorneys general have a reasonable chance of winning their case and that student-athletes could suffer irreparable harm if the restrictions remain in place while the case is being decided.

"Turning upside down rules overwhelmingly supported by member schools will aggravate an already chaotic collegiate environment, further diminishing protections for student-athletes from exploitation," the NCAA said in a statement. "The NCAA fully supports student-athletes making money from their name, image and likeness and is making changes to deliver more benefits to student-athletes, but an endless patchwork of state laws and court opinions make clear partnering with Congress is necessary to provide stability for the future of all college athletes."

Anthony Skrmetti, Tennessee's attorney general, said in a statement Friday that his office plans to litigate the case "to the fullest extent necessary to ensure the NCAA's monopoly cannot continue."

"The NCAA is not above the law, and the law is on our side," Skrmetti said.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares called the win in court "rewarding" and saw it as an extension of the Supreme Court ruling in the NCAA vs. Alston case in 2021, which he said should have put the NCAA "on notice" for its legal vulnerabilities.

"We're finally getting to the point where you're seeing real student-athlete empowerment at the collegiate level," Miyares told ESPN in a phone interview late Friday. "The NCAA in an arbitrary and capricious manner was trying to restrict that."

Miyares said the NCAA model has gotten to the point where it's unsustainable, pointing out the billion-dollar NCAA tournament television contract that was signed without the players getting any cut of it. The potential of change to NIL rules that would come with this ruling could be just the start.

"I think could be the first steps of significant change," he said. "And I think it's been coming for a long time."

College athletics attorney Tom Mars, who worked with a Tennessee collective, Spyre Sports Group, on this case, said the ruling could mark the beginning of the end for the NCAA.

"I think this will be one more brick in the wall that is the end of the NCAA," Mars said. "Short of intervention by Congress, the demise of the NCAA now seems inevitable based on nothing but a financial analysis, as it appears the NCAA is poised to lose all of its upcoming antitrust cases. The cumulative effect of which could make the NCAA financially insolvent."….

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/sto ... injunction