New Lawsuit Against The NCAA Is Worth The Attention Of Miami Hurricanes Fans
Miami Hurricanes fans should pay close attention to a new bombshell lawsuit against the NCAA even if UM isn't directly involved.
Name Image and Likeness (NIL) is front and center here. The attorney generals of Tennessee and Virginia are suing the NCAA, alleging their ban on discussing NIL payments with recruits to be an "illegal restraint on trade."
Remember, Miami was the target of the first ever NIL ruling by the NCAA last year. Women's basketball coach Katie Meier was suspended for three games in 2023 after allegedly facilitating contact between the Cavinder Twins and NIL investor John Ruiz in 2022. Miami's athletic department was put on one-year probation. The NCAA interpreted the meeting as "impermissible contact," since the Cavinders had not yet signed with the Hurricanes.
Even though Miami has not been a target of investigation for at least the past year, we never know when the NCAA might start snooping around in our back yard again. That's why what's happening right now matters.
Tennessee is going on the offensive after the Volunteers athletic program was charged with several massive violations relating to NIL. The attorney general of the state is suing the NCAA. The AG from Virginia is suing, too, as they apparently see this issue of being about much more than a localized, Tennessee problem.
On3's Andy Staples wrote a comprehensive story on the lawsuit and what impact it might have on college football.
"Essentially, (the lawsuit) asks the court to end the fantasy. NCAA leaders want a world where highly sought-after recruits, be they coming out of high school or in the transfer portal, don’t consider how much they’ll be compensated before they choose a school. That world doesn’t exist. That world has never existed."
He continues:
"Since NIL payments were allowed by the NCAA in 2021, recruits, schools and collectives have twisted themselves in semantic knots to pretend they aren’t engaging in the same kind of negotiations everyone in this country uses when deciding how much compensation a person will receive for providing a particular service. A temporary restraining order or an injunction in this case would pierce that veil. It would remove much — but not all — of the pretense, because it would acknowledge how the world actually works."
If this lawsuit is successful, the NCAA's enforcement wing will take a massive hit and lose a significant amount of power. As a result, college football will look even less like the "amateur" sport it used to be.
