Members of the Cardiac Pack are Suing the NCAA Over NIL

Member of NC State’s 1983 NCAA Championship team, the Cardiac Pack, are suing the NCAA and the CLC over Name, Image and Likeness.

Thurl Bailey, Alvin Battle, Walt Densmore, Tommy DiNardo, Terry Gannon, George McClain, Cozell McQueen, Walter Proctor, Harold Thompson and Mike Warren are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Here’s the language of the Introduction of the lawsuit, which you can read in full here:

For more than 40 years, the NCAA and its co-conspirators have systematically and intentionally misappropriated the Cardiac Pack’s publicity rights—including their names, images, and likenesses—associated with that game and that play, reaping scores of millions of dollars from the Cardiac Pack’s legendary victory.

The NCAA has used the images and videos of the members of Cardiac Pack to advertise its March Madness tournament, as well as for other commercial purposes, without the players’ consent and while paying them nothing.

Even as the NCAA has appropriated one-time student-athletes’ images and likenesses without compensation, the NCAA Tournament, now officially known as “March Madness,” has generated nearly one billion dollars each year for the NCAA and its co-conspirators, with broadcast rights alone worth nearly $20 billion over the next decade.

Indeed, NCAA.com currently hosts videos of the Cardiac Pack, which can be viewed only after the viewer watches a commercial advertisement, from which the NCAA profits.

Yet, the NCAA has never paid one cent to Plaintiffs for using their names, images, and likenesses.

In 2021, the United States Supreme Court noted that the NCAA “enjoy[s] monopsony [(i.e., buyer-side monopoly)] power in the market for student athlete services, such that its restraints can (and in fact do) harm competition.”
Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n v. Alston, 594 U.S. 69, 90 (2021). The NCAA admitted
as much in its briefing for Alston. Id. at 86.

The NCAA has for decades leveraged its monopoly power to exploit student-athletes from the moment they enter college until long after they end their collegiate careers. It has conspired with conferences, colleges, licensing companies, and apparel companies to fix the price of student-athlete labor near zero and make student-athletes unwitting and uncompensated lifetime pitchmen for the NCAA.

Since the founding of our country, use of a person’s image in an advertisement without valid consent has been illegal.

“[T]he NCAA is not above the law.” Id. at 112 (Kavanaugh, J., concurring).

Ultimately, the NCAA is an admitted monopolist that has unreasonably and illegally utilized its monopoly power to pay nothing to the people whose names, images, and likenesses it uses without their consent in support of its multibillion-dollar enterprise.

This conduct constitutes:
a. Unreasonable restraint of trade,
b. Illegal monopolization,
c. Unfair and deceptive trade practice,
d. Unjust enrichment, and
e. Tortious misappropriation of publicity rights.

The NCAA’s illegal profit scheme is carried out through various partners and co-conspirators, some of whom are named as defendants here.

Plaintiffs now seek reasonable compensation for the appropriation of their names, images, and likenesses by the NCAA and its partners and coconspirators.

Furthermore, since the NCAA’s illegal conduct continues to this day—notwithstanding the clear notice of the unlawfulness of its behavior provided by Alston and an increasing number of cases throughout the country—it needs to be stopped by way of a permanent injunction.

(Link)

In regards to what the plaintiff’s are looking for in regards to compensation:

The lawsuit asks for “in excess of $25,000” in damages plus interest, a figure necessary to file in superior court. In a statement, the group said it is seeking “reasonable compensation.” The group’s lawyer said the damages could be in the millions of dollars. (Link)