U.S. schools will have to wait a little while longer to begin offering men's basketball and football players deferred compensation as allowed by the ruling Ed O'Bannon's lawsuit against the NCAA.
A panel of three judges in the 9th U.S Circuit Court ruled in favor the NCAA's motion for a stay in the injunction Judge Claudia Wilken granted O'Bannon in Aug. 2014. Ruling in favor of O'Bannon in a class action lawsuit against the NCAA over student-athlete compensation, the injuction was set to take effect Saturday, USA Today reported.
One person close to the case said the decision from the three judges - Sidney R. Thomas, Jay S. Bybee and Gordon J. Quist - may mean the court has reservations regarding Wilken's decision.
"While this is not a guarantee that the NCAA has won on the merits of the case, at a minimum, it signals that the court is wrestling with what to do and may have issues with [Wilken's] decision," Michael Carrier, a Rutgers-Camden law school professor and antitrust expert, told USA Today.
Wilken's ruling was in favor of O'Bannon, but she decided to allow schools to offer men's basketball and football players deferred compensation in exchange for use of their names, images, and likeness up to $5,000 per year. The players would then be able to collect when they left college.
"It's disappointing," the plaintiffs' Michael Hausfeld, O'Bannon's lead attorney, told USA Today, "because it doesn't resolve the uncertainty [Wilken's] ruling has engendered about what intercollegiate athletics will look like for the athletes and the schools.
"Clearly this is not over."
Despite Wilken not granting everything O'Bannon was seeking in his injunction, the NCAA was ultimately displeased with the decision.
"We are pleased the Ninth Circuit today granted the NCAA's motion for a stay," NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy said in a statement. "As a result, the NCAA will not be implementing any changes to its rules in response to the district court's injunction at this time. We continue to wait for the Ninth Circuit's final ruling."
