Everyone Wants To Get Paid: NCAA Sued Over Prize-Money Restrictions on Student-Athletes

The NCAA faces a federal lawsuit as a result of its provisions on student-athletes accepting prize money for their talents.

UNC women's tennis player Reese Brantmeier joined a lawsuit on Monday, knocking the Association as hypocritical for allowing athletes to earn ‘pay-for-play’ funds within the bounds of NIL (name, image, likeness) but no other way.

Brantmeier's qualms against the NCAA's current NIL model highlight that star college basketball or football players as primary benefactors of name, image and likeness deals.

North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier hits a backhand during the Division I Women's Tennis Championship held at the USTA National Campus on May 27, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. North Carolina's Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig won the DI women's tennis doubles national championship. The duo beat fellow Tar Heels Reese Brantmeier and Elizabeth Scotty for the trophy. (Photo by Preston Mack/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

(L-R) First runner-up Annabelle Xu of Canada, champion Reese Brantmeier of the United States and second runner-up Rosie Sterk of Great Britain pose with their trophies during the U16 WTA Future Stars Trophy Presentation Ceremony on Day One of the 2019 WTA Finals at Shenzhen Bay Sports Center on October 27, 2019. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

"It’s ridiculous to watch basketball and football players earning hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that is OK under the name, image and likeness (NIL) rules, and then see us work just as hard and say we can’t earn money directly from our sport," Brantmeier previously stated.

Meanwhile, a rising tennis star player like Brantmeier, who participated in events outside of college tennis such as the U.S. Open, is forced to turn down the prize money unless she relinquishes her status as an NCAA college athlete. 

Previously playing in the Open and winning several matches, the UNC tennis player was forced to turn down over $49,000 in winnings as part of the NCAA's rules on collecting money.

Brantmeier's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in North Carolina, states: "Plaintiff seeks to lift the veil of hypocrisy on the NCAA’s practice of allowing primarily Division I football and men’s basketball student-athletes, who play profit-generating sports in the Power Conferences, to receive virtually all of the pay-for-play money."

The UNC sophomore has been joined by female tennis players, claiming NIL benefits men's athletics more than women's athletics.

Fellow Tar Heel Fiona Crawley, not part of the litigation, spoke up in opposition to the NCAA's bylaws in relation to men's athletics versus women's college sports.

Crawley said, "I’ve worked my a** off this week and it would be unreal to make some money when there’s football, basketball players making millions of dollars on NIL deals," Crawley said in New York last summer, referring to the rules on name, image and likeness sponsorships. "And I can’t take the money that I’ve worked so hard to try to get this week."

(Do the tennis players make a fair point? Or is the age of paying college athletes getting out of hand? Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com)

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