O'Bannon vs NCAA Trial Update: Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany Takes Stand, Says Pay-for-Play Would Eliminate Rose Bowl

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany took the stand Friday at the O'Bannon vs. NCAA trial Friday as a witness for the defense and he said paying college athletes would doom a beloved bowl game.

According to the Associates Press, Delany said on the stand he did not believe league members would agree to paying student-athletes. He also said paying student-athletes would eliminate his conference and the Rose Bowl, a New Year's Day tradition in college football.

Ed O'Bannon, a former UCLA basketball player, in the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA for profiting off student-athletes' names, images and likenesses (NILs) without compensation. If they win, the NCAA could be forced to share revenues from TV contracts with Division I football and basketball players.

"There wouldn't be a Rose Bowl if either they or we were operating in a very different wavelength in terms of paying players," Delany said on the stand.

Delany's testimony followed that of NCAA president Mark Emmert's, the AP reported. Emmert and Delany both testified that paying student-athletes would ruin the NCAA's century-old model of amateurism and goes against the "college experience."

"These games are owned by the institution, and the notion of paying athletes for participation in these games is foreign to the notion of amateurism," Delany said in his testimony.

When questioned by O'Bannon's legal team, Delany confirmed that student-athletes at schools in the Big Ten received none of the $230 million a year the conference makes in broadcast deals.

U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken will be ruling on the case herself, as she allowed the jury to be dismissed after the plaintiffs announced they would not seek individual damages. The trial is expected to last another week at least and Wilken's decision will come within the weeks following.

Even if the O'Bannon plaintiffs win, the NCAA has said it will file an appeal, meaning college sports could remain unchanged for years.