After three full weeks of trial,
the Ed O’Bannon anti-trust lawsuit against the NCAA will come to a close. The
Plaintiffs withdrew their jury demand before trial and so the lone decider of
fact and law will be U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken. It is expected that
she will issue a written opinion towards the beginning of August.
The case has been heavily covered
by the media. ESPN had their own reporter tweeting from inside the courtroom
for the entire length of the trial. Over the course of the proceedings, Judge
Wilken will have heard 23 witnesses, including: Ed O’Bannon, Tyrone Prothro and
one other former athlete; Mark Emmert, the president of the NCAA; the women’s
athletic director for the University of Texas, a couple of conference
commissioners and a slew of economic experts.
At the heart of the matter are
the rights of “student-athletes” to their name, image and likeness. They want
Judge Wilken to issue an injunction that would prohibit the NCAA from
prohibiting them from receiving compensation for these rights. This would allow
the players to enter the marketplace to negotiate payment over television broadcasts,
jersey sales, and other economic rights.
The NCAA on the other hand, is
arguing that amateurism is a fundamental good that makes the ban on allowing “student-athletes”
to profit from their name, image and likeness, pro-competitive.
Is this the end of the NCAA as we
know it? We will have to wait until Judge Wilken’s decision. Even then, the
NCAA has promised to appeal any decision that is not in their favor to the
United States Supreme Court, which could take years.
