West Virginia AD Oliver Luck says players have ‘constitutional right’ to image and likeness
The 2014 offseason hasn’t been too kind to the image of the NCAA, between a players union movement and multiple challenges to the amateur model it uses the institution has been under constant fire from its critics.
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So, when one of its own athletic directors takes a shot at the model it doesn’t do much good. That’s exactly what West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck did during the Big 12’s first-ever ‘State of College Sports’ forum this week.
During the forum Luck made the exact opposite claim that the NCAA just got done arguing a month ago in the Ed O’Bannon case—namely that players shouldn’t be compensated for the usage of their image and likeness.
Instead, according to CBSSports.com’s Jermey Fowler, Luck believes it is their ‘constitutional right’ to have control over image and likeness usage.
Luck went as far as saying the players should be compensated for the use of image and likeness.
“That is who you are…That’s sort of existential,” Luck said. “If we are in fact using name, image and likeness of student-athletes, they should be compensated.”
However, Luck also believes that there won’t be a lot of money spent on such a thing because outside of a select few players the pot of money wouldn’t actually be that big.
Nevermind the 105-player rosters on each FBS football team and the logistics of compensating every player to appear in a video game or on an advertisement or poster for the team. What about those who are used in YouTube videos by athletic department officials as well?
What is shocking is that Luck came out and flat-out said what many have been thinking. He clearly isn’t about toeing the company line if you will. However, will this type of straight talk spark change?
The NCAA will vote later on Thursday about some autonomy for the “Power 5” conferences, and this could be one area where they have an opportunity to make some headway.