Fmr. Ohio State Football Star Sues School, IMG College Over Player Image Use, Profits

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Former NFL All-Pro and Ohio State University (OSU) linebacker Chris Spielman has filed a potentially floodgate-opening proposed class action against the school and sports marketing company IMG College, LLC that alleges the parties committed per se violations of federal antitrust laws. The 35-page complaint alleges the defendants, along with co-conspirators Nike and Honda, participated in a price-fixing conspiracy revolving around the commercial exploitation of college football players’ images following the end of their college playing careers. The case claims the players were never compensated for, nor allowed to make any money from, the use of their likenesses.

More specifically, the lawsuit claims the defendants and co-conspirators were behind a for-profit program in which 64 former student athletes’ and coaches’ images were depicted on banners hung around OSU’s football stadium. Spielman argues that he and the rest of the proposed class never gave consent for their images to be used.  

“The conduct of defendants OSU, IMG/WME, and their co-conspirators is blatantly anticompetitive and exclusionary, as it wipes out in total the future ownership interests of former student athletes in their own images—rights that all other members of society enjoy—even long after student-athletes have ceased attending The Ohio State University and/or participating on the football program,” the complaint reads.

While Nike and Honda are not named as defendants, the suit claims the parties had a hand with OSU and IMG in attempting to eliminate the rights of former student athletes to make any money from the “substantial revenue streams” flowing from college sports. Ohio State, the lawsuit argues, is the main player and operator behind an alleged monopolistic system meant to depress and restrict players’ and former players’ “ability to capitalize on the blood, sweat, and tears” shed through their playing careers at the university.

The defendants’ and their co-conspirators' collective actions constitute a refusal to deal with the plaintiff and proposed class members on future post-competition rights issues, the suit claims, and mark a concerted effort to get current and former OSU football players to “relinquish all rights in perpetuity for use of their images.”  

It’s important to note that Spielman is a prominent presence in the history of Ohio State’s football program, hence the gravity of this suit in the broader landscape of college sports-related litigation. The complaint details Spielman is first all-time at OSU for tackles in a game and was a two-time All-American, among other platitudes at the college level. After his collegiate career, Spielman went on to spend 12 seasons with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and is now an analyst for Fox.

The entire complaint can be read below.