As of late Monday, a magistrate judge has ordered the NCAA to cough up $46 million and awarded it to the attorneys of the Ed O’Bannon case. The NCAA attempted to samurai slice that figure to $8.5 million, but that ended unsuccessfully.
Allocation of the $46 million
$44.4M – O’Bannon’s lawyers ($1.2M less than requested)
$1.5M – cost and expenses (a $3.7M decrease of the plaintiff’s desired amount)
“Admittedly, there are distinctions between the facts underlying the successful and unsuccessful claims,” said Judge Nathaniel Cousins on the NCAA’s lack of approach.
“At the same time, the Court finds that a common core of facts underlay all of the claims plaintiffs brought against the NCAA during the five years of litigation: the claims are all premised upon defendants’ exploitative use of plaintiffs’ names, image, and likenesses to generate revenue for defendants. Here, plaintiffs did not succeed on every claim. But the time spent on the unsuccessful claims contributed to the decisive success by laying the groundwork for the eventual trial victory.”
A similar story predates to August 2014 when the NCAA violated antitrust laws in recognizing – and compensating – men’s basketball and football players for their appearances in video games.
A verdict has yet to be reached, but Judge Nathaniel Cousins’ maneuver on Monday could see those athletes receiving a pay day from the NCAA.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
