Showdown between NCAA and UT brings national spotlight to Greeneville

Hearings are scheduled to begin Tuesday in US District Court in Greeneville for a lawsuit pitting the NCAA against the University of Tennessee over potential NIL infractions.

The NCAA has filed for and received a temporary restraining order to keep their name, image, and likeness rules for student athletes in place, but Judge Clinton Corker said the association’s victory may be short lived.

The states asked for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, saying immediate action was needed to keep the NCAA from standing in the way of recruits monetizing their fame. The period in which high school football recruits can sign scholarship agreements with schools started last week.

According to an Associated Press report, Corker wrote that the states have failed to demonstrate that recruits would be irreparably harmed if the temporary restraining order was not granted.

“The NCAA fully supports student-athletes profiting from their NIL rights, and the Association looks forward to discussing how member schools and conferences overwhelmingly support the current rules that prohibit tampering and unchecked recruiting contacts,” the NCAA said in a statement.

Corker also wrote that by banning NIL-related recruiting, schools that compete against one another are engaging in “anticompetitive” actions.

“Considering the evidence currently before the Court, Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim under the Sherman Act,” the judge wrote, citing a landmark law that bans monopolies,” the judge said in the statement.

In another challenge to the NCAA’s authority coming from Tennessee, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn teamed with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to re-introduce the NCAA Accountability Act. The bill targets NCAA investigations and aims to give more due-process protections to athletes, coaches and others drawing scrutiny from the association’s enforcement arm.

(IMAGE: Bristol Broadcasting Co News Archives)