SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has certified a class action that challenges the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s long-standing rules requiring student-athletes to sign away rights to their names and likenesses as the organization strikes deals of its own.
Although she declined to certify a subclass of athletes seeking to recover monetary damages, U.S. District Chief Judge Claudia Wilken will let plaintiffs try to upend NCAA policies that bar them from striking group deals to license their names and likenesses for use in video games and television broadcasts. In the order certifying the injunctive relief class, released Friday, she said it would be too hard for plaintiffs to determine who had actually been harmed for a damages class.
