WME, ESPN & Networks Hit With Class Action Lawsuit From College Football and Basketball Players

Ten college football and basketball players filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in Tennessee seeking a big piece of the television money pie from ESPN, ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC as well as WME and IMG and more.

The networks and others “have profited from the broadcast and use of Student Athletes’ names, likenesses and images without the Student Athletes’ permission,” says the 40-page filing of October 3. The plaintiffs want a jury trial -- and a potential judgment requiring the defendants to “disgorge all profits” from the arrangements, which could reach billions of dollars. Although the student athletes sign releases, they are “forced to sign as a condition of playing football or basketball in college” and should be voided “as a matter of public policy” and because they are “vague, and therefore void and/or unenforceable.” The arrangements between the broadcasters and NCAA as well as others that license the programming have “created a marketplace resembling a plantation type arrangement where Defendants financially benefit in the collective amount of billions of dollars, while Student Athletes, the driving force of college sports, receive nothing more than their cost of attendance,” the suit says. It charges that the current system violates the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Lanham (Trademark) Act, and Tennessee laws.