"Mr. Johnson was the plaintiff’s counsel in Oliver v. NCAA, which was the first college athlete lawsuit against the NCAA to ever go to trial, the first to win, and the first to get paid. The Oliver case was the impetus for the O’Bannon case and its ongoing progeny. Mr. Johnson was a primary background source for Taylor Branch’s seminal article, The Shame of College Sports."
For years I have said college football players are really employees, go thru the IRS 20 factor employee test and tell me they are not. I was advocating for players to get paid $30K or so a year (20 years ago) before the players realized they were getting screwed and changed the sport forever in their favor and head this off and fix it.
@BluegrassPoke posted something that could ultimately be a game changer for college athletics. I also think we might approach a day the IRS removes exempt status on the NCAA and the schools and tax them, I personally think they should. They have operated like a professional sports league for a long time. Coaches making $10M a year does not look like an NPO either.
The lawsuit of Andrew Oliver vs the NCAA has been a ticking time bomb for a LONG time. I read all the court filings and Johnson's interviews. The University of Dayton law review published a legal brief about this case and its significance. I know most on this board can't read more than one paragraph, but I post it again for your reference, highly educational. It is the most significant lawsuit the NCAA has lost, settling for them on this lawsuit was losing. Had Oliver pursued this case further they would have won on appeal and at SCOTUS, and it would have damaged the NCAA, settling for the NCAA was cheap ($750K) and kept Johnson out of the court room with further pleadings and discovery. I have never understood how OSU fans do not understand the significance of this case. It very well might be the NCAA really holds this against OSU. This case might be the most damaging in the history of the NCAA. This legal brief does not get in to detail how Johnson argued NCAA athletes are employees, I am trying to find that. But one matter not in the NCAA's favor? All schools basically already have work comp insurance for these athletes, Johnson pointed this out and made a joke out of the NCAA's amatuer definition. This lawsuit gave rise to the NIL movement for student athletes.
The holy grail for the NCAA is for them to have control over amatuer status. Lose that and you have nothing. Keep in mind many in the public, and even parts of Congress (Johnson talked to some in Congress), thought that Congress had granted legal control over the definition of an amatuer status to the NCAA. This is not the case at all, we have laws in place that define an employee and Congress has never defined amatuer status, the NCAA has changed laws over the years or interpreted their rules as they wished to keep control over amatuer status, Johnson in his legal filings made a mockery of how hypocritical the NCAA was in interpreting and changing and their own laws to maintain absolute control. Congress is stupid, but boy, they are really stupid. Some actually thought that NCAA rules represented civil law and Congress granted the NCAA that legal authority.
The big reason the NCAA has to control amatuer status? Money. The athletes are the income generating asset, not the school. No good players, no interest, no money. The NCAA gets athletes pennies on the dollars and control their every movement far past any typical employee and tick off most of the boxes on the IRS 20 factor test for employee status. The NCAA gets the profits. And pays for the athletes work comp insurance. Walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
247sports.com
For years I have said college football players are really employees, go thru the IRS 20 factor employee test and tell me they are not. I was advocating for players to get paid $30K or so a year (20 years ago) before the players realized they were getting screwed and changed the sport forever in their favor and head this off and fix it.
@BluegrassPoke posted something that could ultimately be a game changer for college athletics. I also think we might approach a day the IRS removes exempt status on the NCAA and the schools and tax them, I personally think they should. They have operated like a professional sports league for a long time. Coaches making $10M a year does not look like an NPO either.
The lawsuit of Andrew Oliver vs the NCAA has been a ticking time bomb for a LONG time. I read all the court filings and Johnson's interviews. The University of Dayton law review published a legal brief about this case and its significance. I know most on this board can't read more than one paragraph, but I post it again for your reference, highly educational. It is the most significant lawsuit the NCAA has lost, settling for them on this lawsuit was losing. Had Oliver pursued this case further they would have won on appeal and at SCOTUS, and it would have damaged the NCAA, settling for the NCAA was cheap ($750K) and kept Johnson out of the court room with further pleadings and discovery. I have never understood how OSU fans do not understand the significance of this case. It very well might be the NCAA really holds this against OSU. This case might be the most damaging in the history of the NCAA. This legal brief does not get in to detail how Johnson argued NCAA athletes are employees, I am trying to find that. But one matter not in the NCAA's favor? All schools basically already have work comp insurance for these athletes, Johnson pointed this out and made a joke out of the NCAA's amatuer definition. This lawsuit gave rise to the NIL movement for student athletes.
The holy grail for the NCAA is for them to have control over amatuer status. Lose that and you have nothing. Keep in mind many in the public, and even parts of Congress (Johnson talked to some in Congress), thought that Congress had granted legal control over the definition of an amatuer status to the NCAA. This is not the case at all, we have laws in place that define an employee and Congress has never defined amatuer status, the NCAA has changed laws over the years or interpreted their rules as they wished to keep control over amatuer status, Johnson in his legal filings made a mockery of how hypocritical the NCAA was in interpreting and changing and their own laws to maintain absolute control. Congress is stupid, but boy, they are really stupid. Some actually thought that NCAA rules represented civil law and Congress granted the NCAA that legal authority.
The big reason the NCAA has to control amatuer status? Money. The athletes are the income generating asset, not the school. No good players, no interest, no money. The NCAA gets athletes pennies on the dollars and control their every movement far past any typical employee and tick off most of the boxes on the IRS 20 factor test for employee status. The NCAA gets the profits. And pays for the athletes work comp insurance. Walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
Off the Boards: Interview with Attorney Richard Johnson
GoTigers247 caught up with Robert Johnson, who took to Twitter on Saturday night to eviscerate the NCAA's decision to declare James Wiseman ineligible in an 11 tweet thread.
247sports.com
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