Former Athletes Join Lawsuit Against NCAA

Nearly a dozen former college football and basketball players who competed as far back as the 1960s have joined a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA, arguing that the association should pay them for the use of their images. The suit, brought last year against the governing body of college sports by Ed O’Bannon, a former basketball standout at UCLA, is pending in federal district court in California. The NCAA’s amateurism rules prevent college athletes from accepting payment in exchange for the use of their images or likenesses in videos and other commercial ventures. But Mr. O’Bannon has asserted that the rule should not apply to former athletes: “Once you leave your university,” he told USA Today last year, “one would think your likeness belongs to you.”