Terrelle Pryor Sues Ohio State As Group of Athletes Seeking NIL Back-Pay Grows

Former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor is the latest of several athletes suing over dollars the college football industry made with their name, image, and likeness.

The suit says Pryor was “arguably the most recognizable name in college football” when he played for the Buckeyes, which would have made him one of the highest-paid athletes in the NCAA. The filing does not specify the exact amount Pryor is seeking.

Pryor filed a federal lawsuit Friday against his former school, the NCAA, and the Big Ten in the Eastern Division of the Southern District of Ohio. In late September, Reggie Bush sued his alma mater (Southern California), former conference, and the NCAA for the same reason. Former Michigan football players sued the NCAA and Big Ten Network earlier that month. NC State’s 1983 “Cardiac Pack” Cinderella team began the trend when the group filed a suit against the NCAA and Collegiate Licensing Company in June.

Pryor’s attorney declined to comment, saying they will give a statement Monday. A spokesperson for Ohio State said the university would not comment on pending litigation.

Pryor won two Big Ten championships with the Buckeyes before leaving the school amid the football program scandal that involved him and others committing NCAA violations by receiving benefits from the owner of a tattoo parlor. Pryor, like Bush, was sanctioned for something that would almost certainly be permissible under current NCAA rules. In 2021, just as the legal NIL pay era began, Pryor and his other OSU teammates who were punished asked for the school and NCAA to officially restore their records.

“Although this could never undo what we and our families endured for breaking rules that shouldn’t have existed in the first place, we believe reinstating and acknowledging the accomplishments of ourselves and our teammates would be a huge step in the right direction,” Pryor and the other four players said in a joint statement at the time.

Pryor bounced around the NFL and last played a regular-season game for the Bills in 2018.

His suit is a class-action complaint in which Pryor is the only named plaintiff. The class is described as all former Ohio State athletes before the start of NIL.

The suit says the NCAA “hosts videos on its own website as well as on YouTube” that include Pryor and function as advertisements, and the institutions still make money from selling his merchandise and memorabilia. This is where Learfield, the multimedia rights company named in the suit, comes into play.

“Under the NCAA’s rules, the Defendants can and do profit from the value of the NIL and athletic achievements of the Plaintiff and the class, even long after their college careers have ended, while providing absolutely no compensation for the same,” the suit says.