US: Judge rules NCAA must defend limits on compensation to college athletes

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) will have to return to court to defend its new limits on the compensation college athletes can receive for playing sports, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, March 28, reported Bloomberg.

The ruling by US District Judge Claudia Wilken set a trial date of December 3 for the lawsuits, which seek to prevent the NCAA and a group of 11 major conferences from collectively confining athletes to receiving scholarships covering tuition, fees, room, board, books and incidental costs of attending college. Her 2014 ruling after a trial was later pared back by the US Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

That former lawsuit focused primarily on the ability of athletes to profit off their likenesses; O’Bannon claimed he deserved compensation for his image being used in video games. The case now headed to trial is much broader, focusing on whether to lift all NCAA limits on compensation for Division I athletes.

Wednesday’s ruling “recognized, as other courts have for decades, that principles of amateurism and student-athlete well-being are critical to college sports,” the NCAA said in a statement. “We look forward to proving at trial that the rules are essential to providing educational opportunities to nearly half a million student athletes.”

Full Content: Bloomberg

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