O'Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
802 F.3d 1049 (2015), cert. denied, 137 S. Ct. 277 (2016)
- Written by Rose VanHofwegen, JD
Facts
Only amateurs play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (codefendant). Schools may pay athletes grants-in-aid covering tuition and fees, room and board, and required textbooks. However, no athlete may receive pay for their athletic performance of any kind, including for use of the athlete’s name, image, and likeness (NIL). Former all-American UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon (plaintiff) saw an avatar of himself in a video game. He had neither consented to nor been paid for its use. O’Bannon sued the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company (codefendant), which licenses NCAA trademarks, alleging that the rules forbidding paying an athlete violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. The trial court found the NCAA compensation rules to be an unlawful restraint of trade and enjoined it from prohibiting schools from paying athletes up to $5,000 deferred compensation. The NCAA appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Bybee, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
