Ten Things To Know About The NCAA / O’Bannon Antitrust Case

In a landmark ruling for college athletes, US District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cannot stop players from selling the rights to their names, images, and likenesses to the schools that they attend. The decision struck down NCAA regulations that prohibit players from receiving anything other than scholarships and the cost of attendance at their schools, holding that such regulations unreasonably restrain trade. O'Bannon v. NCAA (N.D. Cal. Aug. 8, 2014).

The case arose in 2009, when former University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) basketball star Ed O'Bannon and 19 other former college athletes sued the NCAA, claiming that various NCAA regulations violated antitrust laws insofar as they reflected a conspiracy in restraint of trade among Division I schools and the conferences of which those schools are members, such as the Big Ten, the PAC 12, and the ACC. The lawsuit alleged that the regulations were aimed at