The NCAA settles lawsuit with Tennessee and Virginia over compensation rules

By Canadian Press on January 31, 2025.

The NCAA has settled the lawsuit with the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia and other states over its rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation for recruits.

Notice that a settlement has been reached in principle with a term sheet signed was filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, in Greeneville. A status report had been due Friday. The settlement will be finalized along with a request for a permanent injunction by March 17, according to the filing.

This settles the antitrust lawsuit filed exactly a year ago by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia challenging the NCAA’s ban on the use of name, image and likeness compensation in the recruitment of college athletes. That lawsuit was a response to the NCAA’s investigation of University of Tennessee athletics for potential recruiting infractions.

U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker issued a preliminary injunction last February that undercut what had been a fundamental principle of the NCAA’s model of amateurism for decades: Third parties cannot pay recruits to attend a particular school. Corker’s injunction barred the organization from enforcing its rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation for recruits by granting a preliminary injunction demanded by the states of Tennessee and Virginia.

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Teresa M. Walker, The Associated Press