Former footwear exec Sonny Vaccaro said that NCAA Exec VP/Regulatory Affairs Oliver Luck "reached out in January and they have spoken 'several' times about what the future of college sports might look like as they get to know each other personally," according to Jon Solomon of CBSSPORTS.com. Vaccaro is a "longtime critic of the NCAA" and "helped organize the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit victory that the NCAA is appealing." Vaccaro said that Luck's overtures "mark only the second time a high-ranking NCAA official has talked with Vaccaro at length about college sports issues, with the last time coming in the 1980s." Solomon wrote back-channel discussions "certainly don't mean an end is in sight to legal threats for the NCAA and its members." National College Players Association Founder & President Ramogi Huma said that he "anticipates more lawsuits coming given how frequently lawyers contact him with theories on how to protect the rights of players." Attorney Jeffrey Kessler is "suing for a free market for athletes," and his case is "viewed as the biggest legal threat for the NCAA and the major conferences." Kessler: "I want to sit down and I'd want to negotiate a settlement which would provide a system that would fairly take care of my athletes and maybe also compromise in some of these other points." He added, "That's why you have agreements in the NBA and NFL, and you have them with unions and without unions. ... Or (the NCAA) can fight a jihad till the end in the name of their system and then somebody will be right." Huma cited a '13 SportsBusiness Journal report that said that $1.2B in new revenue "flows into the college sports industry every year." Huma: "It's very convenient for NCAA apologists who say there's not enough money and look, we'll have to rip away the way Olympic sports. Why would you have to rip away the Olympic sports?" (CBSSPORTS.com, 4/10).
