In a recent court filing, O’Bannon has requested the Court’s permission to expand the class action lawsuit to include current NCAA Division I football and men’s basketball student-athletes (O’Bannon may seek to add other student-athletes later).  Previously, the class only included student-athletes who had exhausted their eligibility in these sports.  Although O’Bannon seeks to add current student-athletes to the class, he does not seek for current student-athletes to be paid during the term of their eligibility.  O’Bannon, however, has proposed a trust for money generated by the licensing and use of student-athletes’ images, likenesses, and names.  O’Bannon has proposed using an economic formula where student-athletes would receive half of the NCAA’s broadcasting revenue and one-third of video game revenue.  The remainder of the revenue will continue to go to the NCAA, conference offices, and universities and colleges.  Upon the exhaustion of eligibility, the student-athletes could access the trust to receive payments.  The proposed amounts to be paid to individual student-athletes is unclear as is whether star student-athletes will be paid more than back-ups and how to evaluate whether student-athletes at certain schools should be paid more than others.  This matter may go to trial in 2013.

For any questions, feel free to contact Christian Dennie at cdennie@bgsfirm.com.