THE MODERN PAY FOR PLAY MODEL: LAWS THAT PROTECT STUDENT-ATHLETES' FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO COMMERCIALZE THEIR NAMES, IMAGES, AND LIKENESS

Authors

Paul A. Schwabe Jr.

First Page

289

Abstract

In O’Bannon v. NCAA, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California entered a permanent injunction against the National Collegiate Athletic Association enjoining the collegiate sports governing body from enforcing limits on student-athlete compensation derived from the use of their name, images, and likenesses rights. The court concluded that NCAA rules unreasonably restrained trade in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, however, neither the court nor the NCAA laid out a framework for lawfully implementing these new economic rights to student-athletes. Since that ruling, only one state’s legislature, California, has attempted to pass legislation to prevent the NCAA from infringing on student-athletes’ rights to profit from their name, image, and likeness, but whether that effort bears fruit remains unclear. This Note analyzes the California legislation and the O’Bannon decision in order to outline potential strategies that state and federal legislatures may adopt to protect student-athletes’ fundamental economic rights.

Recommended Citation

Paul A. Schwabe Jr., THE MODERN PAY FOR PLAY MODEL: LAWS THAT PROTECT STUDENT-ATHLETES' FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO COMMERCIALZE THEIR NAMES, IMAGES, AND LIKENESS, 15 Brook. J. Corp. Fin. & Com. L. 289 (2020).
Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjcfcl/vol15/iss1/12