One day after her Ed O'Bannon opinion was "both upheld and vacated, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken made no decision on whether to grant class-action status to two lawsuits that seek to prevent the NCAA from limiting what schools can offer football and men's and women's basketball players," according to sources cited by Jon Solomon of CBSSPORTS.com. Jeffrey Kessler, who represents the plaintiff in the suit, former Clemson CB Martin Jenkins, on Thursday said that he believes the O'Bannon decision "helps his case to strike down NCAA rules that prevent compensation to players above full cost of attendance." Wilken asked lawyers for the Shawne Alston and Jenkins plaintiffs, the NCAA and FBS conferences for "further briefing to address the impact of the O'Bannon decision." Kessler: "The judge made a comment from the bench that she didn't think O'Bannon had any implications in this case, and the NCAA thought it did and asked for it to be part of the briefing. I think the (O'Bannon) opinion helps us on the basic issue that the NCAA has no immunity from the antitrust laws and that's something they tried to argue in every case they've applied" (CBSSPORTS.com, 10/2).
CLASS WARFARE: In N.Y., Marc Tracy writes the Jenkins case is the one many experts "see as the gravest threat to the amateur model." While the case is in the preliminary stages, Wilken "seemed sympathetic to allowing it to move forward." But "several technical complications remain," including the case's "apparent similarity" to the Alston lawsuit also under discussion. The Jenkins case "asks a federal court to declare illegal an NCAA rule barring compensation beyond a scholarship" to top-tier football and D-I men’s basketball players. Kessler: "You have a current rule that says no compensation can be provided by the schools of any amount other than perhaps cost of attendance. That’s the rule we’re seeking to strike down." Lawyers representing the NCAA and the Power Five conferences argued that a free market for players "would help some members" of Kessler’s proposed class of athletes and "harm others, and therefore Judge Wilken should not certify the class." NCAA attorney Jeffrey Mishkin said, "Once you eliminate the cap, you don’t know what the NCAA might do or not do, or what the court might do or not do." Other than Wilken, Kessler "spoke the most of the four main lawyers." He was "animated, raising his voice in excitement and pacing back and forth" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/2).
