Group Will Represent Financial Interests of Ex-Athletes

As a key antitrust lawsuit over college athletes' rights to a share of the revenue generated off their commercial “likenesses” nears trial, an organization has emerged to represent the financial interests of former athletes who would share the wealth. The Former College Athletes Association, as the newly formed group calls itself, has on its board the mediator Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw distribution of funds to victims of the September 11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing, the former sports apparel executive Sonny Vaccaro, and Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association. The new organization has been working with a group that aims to ensure that performing artists are compensated for use of their intellectual property, and is poised to represent the interests of former athletes if courts ultimately force the NCAA to distribute to players the television and other revenue that now flows almost entirely to colleges.