A Tennessee federal judge on Friday agreed to suspend a National Collegiate Athletic Association rule barring third-party marketing deals to recruit student athletes, finding that an antitrust lawsuit challenging the rule is likely to succeed.
U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker in Greeneville preliminarily barred the NCAA from enforcing the rule, which limits prospective student athletes' ability to negotiate deals with third parties such as alumni and business collectives for the commercial use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).
Tennessee and Virginia sued over the so-called NIL “recruitment ban” in January, arguing that the provision unlawfully restrained competition within the labor market of the NCAA’s Division I, the highest level for college athletics.
Corker in his ruling said, “encouraging free and fair price competition in the NIL market by enjoining the NCAA's NIL-recruiting ban will serve the public interest.”
“Without the give and take of a free market, student-athletes simply have no knowledge of their true NIL value,” the judge said.
The collegiate athletic governing body is also facing other lawsuits from current and former athletes seeking billions of dollars over claims that it unlawfully curtailed or denied earning opportunities.
The NCAA said in a statement on Friday that "turning upside down rules overwhelmingly supported by member schools will aggravate an already chaotic collegiate environment, further diminishing protections for student-athletes from exploitation.”
The group said it supports student-athletes making money from their name, image and likeness and criticized what it called an “endless patchwork of state laws and court opinions” about how students can market their name, image and likeness.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in a statement said Corker’s decision “ensures the rights of student-athletes will be protected for the duration of this case, but the bigger fight continues.”
The case is State of Tennessee and Commonwealth of Virginia v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, No. 3:24-CV-00033-DCLC-DCP.
For plaintiffs: Cameron Norris of Consovoy McCarthy; attorneys from Tennessee, Virginia attorneys general offices
For NCAA: Bob Boston of Holland & Knight; and Rakesh Kilaru of Wilkinson Stekloff
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