case

Ten years after graduating from college UCLA basketball player ed O'Bannon was at his friend’s house playing video games until his friend commented on the fact that O'Bannon was one of the players on the court. Although it did not say O'Bannon on the player's uniform, the player did happen to look like O'Bannon with the same skin tone, bald head, height, and weight. The player also the same shooting percentage, speed, team, and number. O'Bannon could not believe that the NCAA was still profiting off of his likeness even years after graduation and that he was not presented a penny of the profits. O'Bannon took this case to court for the NCAA violating antitrust laws by unlawfully conspiring to prevent players from negotiating the monetary value of their names, images, and likenesses. O'Bannon ended up winning this case, and granting universities an allowance to offer full cost of attendance and overall relax other aspects of amateurism by permitting student-athletes to receive unlimited meals; borrow against future earnings to purchase loss-of-value insurance and receive athletic performance bonuses from international organizations related to Olympic participation. The problem is that the case only covered a very narrow set of ways by which only the best student-athletes could gain some compensation and risk-reduction for their labor leaving a vast majority still under the ownership and exploitation of these athletes further driving The Plantation Model. 

Several years later former Clemson cornerback Martin Jenkins stepped into the courtroom to try the NCAA as well. This time in hopes of granting universities the ability to pay their students. The main argument of Jenkins’ case is the use of the money that athletes generate, “they build expensive stadiums and training facilities to create the image of a professional team, they pay big-name coaches millions of dollars a year and hire various staff in hopes that it will give their programs a competitive advantage. In a sense, colleges spend a considerable amount of money on what is around the athlete. To some degree, they do so because NCAA rules deny those colleges an opportunity to spend money directly on the athletes” (McCann). Jenkins argues that in college he was in the best shape of his life and was never properly reimbursed. By the time Jenkins made it into the NFL, his injuries from college were so great that he could not bear to continue playing for the New York Jets. The NCAA profit off of Jenkins leaving him unable to profit off of himself.