NIL Hour: Johnson v. NCAA; Brandr v. EA Sports

Welcome to THE Sports Law Podcast! We keep you informed on everything at the intersection of sports and the law. The world of Name, Image, and Likeness keeps moving forward as Tarun (⁠@tksharmalaw⁠), Mike (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Mike_sonof_Law⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠), and Holly (⁠⁠@SlamDunkSummers⁠⁠) break down the latest updates in NIL. Logan Hughes (@loganchughes23) is a 3L at Ohio Northern University and joins to discuss his recent article on our website.

We have discussed Johnson v. NCAA many times on our podcast. (2:40) Johnson is a case in the 3rd Circuit that is looking for student athletes to become employees. Logan's article discusses circuit precedent and why he thinks the NCAA has a strong case on the interlocutory appeal being heard on the "employee" issue. You can read Logan's article ⁠here⁠. We give insight into the precent of Berger and Dawson in which the 7th and 9th circuit ruled against student athletes being deemed employees. Is today's era of college athletics the right time for athletes to become employees? We discussed it all.

EA Sports is making a new NCAA Football game, but it now comes with a tortious interference lawsuit from The Brandr Group. (25:45) Brandr is a group licensing NIL company that has been negotiating group licensing deals for EA sports with student athletes as it relates to their NIL being used in the game. Brandr had 54 schools that they were working with to get group licensing deals for EA Sports. However, EA Sports allegedly hired OneTeam Partners to cut out Brandr to encourage students to "opt in" to use their NIL in the videogame and receive $500, with no royalties. Brandr was claiming that EA Sports wasn't going to provide student athletes with fair compensation for their NIL.

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