NCAA president Mark Emmert took the stand Thursday in the trial for Ed O'Bannon's class action lawsuit that could alter college sports forever.
According to the Associated Press, Emmert was called as the NCAA's witness and talked about his proposal to give the five "power conferences" more autonomy. O'Bannon and 19 other plaintiffs are seeking an injunction forcing the NCAA to compensate student athletes with the profits they help pull in.
CLICK HERE for live updates from the courtroom, courtesy of ESPN's Mark Schlabach.
Emmert said his proposal to give the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC the ability to cover the full cost of attendance of their student-athletes. That proposal, Emmert said, would have to be strictly limited to cover what the players do on the basketball court or football field.
Members of power conference schools are in favor of such a proposal, but on their terms and they seem to side more with O'Bannon than with the NCAA.
"You've moved into realm where you're compensating student-athletes for something other than the legitimate cost of being a student," Emmert said on the stand. "You've now moved into pay for play."
The NCAA president said amateurism has been central to college sports since the organization began in 1905. Emmert said the value of going to college should be getting an education, whether or not the student also plays football or basketball.
"It's one of the most fundamental principles of the NCAA and intercollegiate athletics," Emmert said in his testimony. "They have always seen and assumed that intercollegiate athletics is about the notion that these are members of the student body. They're not hired employees conducting games for entertainment. They're not a random group of folks that just come together to play sports."
Schlabach reported around 1:30 p.m. the NCAA's questioning of Emmert ended and the plaintiff's cross-examination was set to begin.
Thursday marked the ninth day of the trial, which took five years to get into a courtroom. If the O'Bannon plaintiffs are successful, the NCAA will not be able to limit what Division I football and basketball players make as compensation for use of their names, images and likenesses.
