Examining the NCAA’s Reliance on the Board of Regents Case in O’Bannon

By Jeffrey Birren   In 2009, Ed O’Bannon and other former college football and basketball athletes filed a class action lawsuit against the NCAA on the grounds that the NCAA violated several Federal antitrust laws. The plaintiffs believed that they should be entitled to adequate compensation for the NCAA’s use of their respective names, images and likenesses (“NILs”) that were used for commercial purposes, including without limitation, live broadcasts, television commercials and vid