NCAA Asks Supreme Court to Hear Ed O'Bannon Case: Latest Details and Reaction

The NCAA asked the Supreme Court on Friday to hear the divisive Ed O'Bannon case regarding student-athlete compensation, according to USA Today's Steve Berkowitz.

The NCAA's request was reportedly a response to March filings from plaintiffs who also asked the Supreme Court to hear the antitrust case.

However, there is no guarantee it will be heard.

NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy released a statement Friday explaining why the NCAA filed a request to the Supreme Court, according to Yahoo Sports' Sam Cooper: 

"

For different reasons, both the NCAA and Ed O'Bannon believe the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals used the wrong tests to analyze the NCAA rules. The NCAA asked the Supreme Court to hear the case to obtain unquestionable clarity on key issues of law affecting the NCAA and other similar organizations.

In short, we are asking the Supreme Court to reaffirm its antitrust holding in the Board of Regents case, endorse the 9th Circuit's affirmation of amateurism, and define the appropriate scope of the First Amendment. We believe the Supreme Court can conduct this review properly and dictate the appropriate tests by accepting the questions we have presented and rejecting those presented by O'Bannon.

"

The heart of O'Bannon's case against the NCAA centers around claims that collegiate athletes should be compensated when the organization uses their name and likeness. 

In September 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sided with O'Bannon and ruled that the NCAA's amateurism rules violated antitrust law, according to Sports Illustrated's Michael McCann, affirming a decision from a lower court. 

However, the appeals court also struck down a 2014 ruling from Judge Claudia Wilken "that would have required member schools to pay Division I football and men’s basketball players up to $5,000 a year for name, image and likeness rights ("NIL rights")," per McCann. 

At the time of the decision, Judge Jay Bybee ruled that "offering [student-athletes] cash sums untethered to educational expenses"—such as $5,000 a year for NIL rights—would transform NCAA sports into 'minor league status,'" according to McCann. 

McCann added that if the two parties tried to bring the case to the Supreme Court, the odds of it being heard would be "extremely low" since the nation's highest court only hears approximately 1 percent of the cases brought forward.