A U.S. District Judge in Oakland, Calif., said she likely will ask plaintiffs in a highly visible anti-trust lawsuit regarding the use of collegiate student-athletes' names and likenesses to amend their complaint against the NCAA and two co-defendants, USA Today is reporting.
Should the plaintiffs refile their case, they will be allowed to add at least one current student-athlete to the list of plaintiffs and could open the door for the case to become a class-action suit involving thousands of former student-athletes.
The NCAA's defense team had argued that the plaintiffs had made changes in their legal strategy through the course of the suit's filing that attempted to change the case from being strictly about former student-athletes to include current athletes. Former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon is the lead athlete in the suit.
Judge Claudia Wilken's pending decision would allow the plaintiffs to formally clarify their case, the USA Today report said.
The NCAA had contended that the change in legal theory is one reason the judge should not allow the case to become a class action. The NCAA fears that such a ruling that could allow thousands of former and current football and men's basketball players to join the case.
The potential of a damages award could reach billions of dollars, which would seriously cripple the NCAA's role as a collegiate governing body.
USA Today added that the plaintiffs' lead lawyer, Michael Hausfeld, also said the plaintiffs no longer plan to argue that money generated from the use of athletes' names, images and likenesses in regard to jersey and other apparel sales should go to student-athletes, as they had stated in the current version of their complaint. That puts the case on the complaint's other, considerable, areas: TV broadcast and re-broadcast, video games and other digital and electronic media.
ilken did not make a ruling Thursday on whether to grant class certification. She encouraged the sides to work with retired Judge Edward Infante, now with a Bay Area mediation and arbitration service, to reach a settlement. USA Today said the prospect of such a deal seems unlikely.
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