Today’s guest columnist is Ed O’Bannon.
I wish Mark Emmert well on his retirement, but his term as head of the NCAA will leave a lot to be desired.
I’m very familiar with Emmert and the worldview he represented. I brought a federal case for name, image and likeness rights for college athletes, including those who had been featured in video games without their consent, let alone pay.
I remember during our trial in Oakland in 2014 how much Emmert struggled on the witness stand. I honestly felt bad for him.
Emmert argued that college athletes shouldn’t be paid for their NIL because he said it was exploitative—to the athletes. I’m not a lawyer, and I’m not an economist, but that made no sense to me. As it turned out, it didn’t make sense to Judge Claudia Wilken or to judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, either.
Remember, this wasn’t that long ago. We’re talking about 2014. Back then, NIL was unpopular, even threatening to some, especially to traditionalists in college sports. But all we were asking for was for college athletes to enjoy the same rights as their classmates.
That’s it.
While he was on the stand, Emmert had to defend photos of college players wearing Nike uniforms and Nike logos as part of their team apparel. He said it was, and I remember his wording, “fine” for that to be the case. I also remember shaking my head. These athletes had no choice but to endorse a brand that wasn’t paying them a penny, and they couldn’t endorse their own brand.
We were open to settling with the NCAA, just like we settled with Electronic Arts, if the NCAA leaders agreed to change NIL rules. They wouldn’t. And they lost the trial, lost the appeal and then, a handful of years later, were forced by state laws to allow NIL. The U.S. Supreme Court also found their system of amateurism rules problematic in the Alston case.
The whole controversy was avoidable. Emmert didn’t create the situation, but he didn’t do what was necessary to end it. He owns that.
I hope with new NCAA leadership come new values that treat college athletes with the respect and dignity they deserve.
O’Bannon is a retired NBA player and former UCLA basketball star who led a historic case against the NCAA for college athletes’ NIL rights. He also wrote Court Justice: The Inside Story of My Battle Against the NCAA with Sportico’s Michael McCann.
