2019 Kentucky Mr. Basketball is lead plaintiff in lawsuit vs NCAA. Here’s what to know

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Dontaie Allen, winner of the 2019 Kentucky Mr. Basketball award, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the NCAA on Jan. 31 in the Eastern District of Kentucky.

The Allen v. NCAA lawsuit includes 33 current and former Division I men’s basketball and football players — seven with ties to the commonwealth. It argues that the NCAA has denied and restricted college athletes’ compensation, including their ability to profit off their names, images and likenesses.

It’s one of multiple filed last month with the goal of securing higher payments for current and former college athletes than the House v. NCAA settlement. Part of what makes this particular case unique, though, is that it also seeks to challenge the NCAA’s “pay for play” prohibition. Newport-based lawyer Chris Macke called it “intellectually dishonest.”

Macke pointed toward Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. He has signed NIL deals with big-time brands New Balance, Gatorade and Fanatics. It is unknown how much Flagg has made from these deals, but various media outlets have valued them well over $1 million. Macke argued that these companies wouldn’t pay Flagg for his NIL if he wasn’t performing on the basketball court.

Take Texas Tech football. The Red Raiders’ NIL collective spent $10 million to recruit 17 transfers in from the portal this offseason, according to ESPN. Three top-50 players each signed deals exceeding $1 million for 2025.

“Guys are getting paid to play sports, and I think we should be honest about that,” Macke told The Courier Journal. “I don’t think anybody has been so far. I think that it’s a convenient way to keep the athletes from becoming employees of universities. … That’s the reality of it, and we wanted to do that differently in our suit than it was done in the House (class) action.”

Seven of Allen v. NCAA’s 33 plaintiffs have ties to the commonwealth.

Dontaie Allen: Allen hails from Falmouth. He played at the University of Kentucky…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/2019-kentucky-mr-basketball-lead-101754292.html

Author : The Courier Journal

Publish date : 2025-02-14 10:17:00

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