Dive Brief:
- The National Collegiate Athletic Association will no longer require Division I athletes to sign off on a clause allowing their names and likenesses to be used for promotional purposes without compensation.
- The NCAA’s move comes as a federal judge is deciding a class-action lawsuit against the association on the issue, and indicates that it is trying to distance itself from legal entanglements over who owns college athletes' names and likenesses, USA Today reported.
- Athletes have testified in the lawsuit, led by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, that they were told they had to sign the form to be eligible to play.
Dive Insight:
Eliminating the clause makes it appear that it had little validity in the first place, as one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys points out. The NCAA claims athletes were not required to sign the form. But plaintiffs submitted evidence showing that a college president and conference commissioner believed otherwise.