While the sports world has been fixated on the goings on with the University of Michigan football program and the potentially explosive cheating scandal we told you about last week, the really important action has been taking place 2,000 miles away.
In an Oakland, Calif. Courtroom, a judge is preparing to rule on a case that may decide nothing less than the future of American sports.
As far as can be gleaned from her bio, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Claudia Wilken is neither a former athlete nor is she a sports fan.
Yet, if the events of last week are an indicator, history may prove Wilken, who sits in the Northern California district, to be one of the most significant figures in American sports history. Wilken is hearing motions in a case where three current and former college athletes have brought suit against the NCAA.
The athletes, Arizona State swimmer Grant House, former Oregon and current Texas Christian basketball player Sedona Prince and former Illinois football player Tymir Ta-meer Oliver, are seeking to take the NCAA for a very expensive ride.
The three athletes contend that they are owed millions in lost broadcast revenue denied them before 2021 by the college athletics governing body and the five biggest conferences. The suit arrives as athletes have come in recent years to receive payments for the use of their names, images and likenesses.
Prince, Oliver and House contend that they are owed damages for what they could have made had the NCAA and the conferences not restricted those earnings before 2021.
We’ve long railed in this space about the historic resistance of college administrators to granting athletes compensation beyond a scholarship, a foolish and old-fashioned opposition at best.
The NCAA has begrudgingly loosened those prohibitions, though not by choice. As a result, increasing numbers of young people are making thousands, if not in some cases, millions, presenting themselves as commercial pitch persons locally and nationally, as the markets will allow.
What’s been missing is the athletes’ share of the billions colleges receive in television money that the NCAA, conferences and schools garner from the networks in rights fees.
Their professional brethren get their share of TV scratch through collective bargaining with the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL and others. College students should get the same.
And that may be the next phase. The attorneys representing the trio bringing the suit are arguing that any potential damages should be granted to current and future athletes who competed from 2016 to the June 2020 date the complaint was filed.
That’s more than 14,000 athletes in different classes, if you’re counting.
Wilken, who has previously cleared the way for athlete compensation in two other cases, seemed amenable to opening the gates beyond the three plaintiffs in arguments made last week.
The full lawsuit is to be heard in 14 months, but the NCAA shouldn’t wait to go into full panic mode.
You see, the plaintiffs are seeking $1.4 billion in damages, which, under federal antitrust law, could triple to $4.2 billion. That’s nearly 10 times the assets the NCAA reported for last year.
And that dread couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.