Tennessee OL Jackson Lampley files declaration in suit against NCAA

A Tennessee football player has filed a declaration supporting the state of Tennessee and the Commonwealth of Virginia in their lawsuit against the NCAA.

Offensive lineman Jackson Lampley filed a six-page declaration on Thursday where he outlined how NIL plays a role in the decisions of recruits and has helped college athletes. The redshirt senior also attests to how prospects should be able to communicate with collectives during their recruiting process and signing a National Letter of Intent ends the negotiation window.

“The signing of the LOI signals the end of the recruiting process,” Lampley wrote in his testimony. “Once the LOI is executed, competing schools are forbidden from contacting that recruit. While many athletes provide non-binding ‘verbal’ commitments to a school prior to signing the LOI, that does not necessarily signal the end of the recruitment process. Recruits still have the power to reconsider their commitment, and some recruits make it clear that they are still willing to hear from other schools, thus potentially shopping one opportunity against another.”

Booster-driven NIL collectives have become crucial in retaining and attracting top talent. Collectives make up roughly 90% of all dollars in the space. They have become the recruiting tool in college football. The NCAA recently levied sanctions on Florida State and is also investigating Florida for the Jaden Rashada saga – both are cases allegedly involving recruiting infractions involving NIL collectives.

Jackson Lampley emphasizes role of NIL in recruiting

Earlier this week, news broke of the NCAA investigating Tennessee for multiple potential NIL violations. The Tennessee and Virginia attorneys general fought back Wednesday, filing a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Tennessee that challenges the NCAA’s ban on NIL in high school recruiting. At its root, it’s an antitrust lawsuit arguing the body does not have the right to put restrictions on compensating college athletes.

Lampley joins Tennessee athletic director Danny White and Spyre co-founder James Clawson as declarants in the lawsuit. In the declaration, he emphasizes how much NIL is weighted in the recruitment of the top prospects in the nation.

“Almost every recruit I meet with asks first and foremost about NIL,” Lampley states. “But they also ask about all the same factors I considered in the pre-NIL world. Just like finances are a factor for every other college student’s decision for where to enroll, how much weight a recruit puts on financial costs and opportunities ought to be up to them, as simply part of finding the right fit for a given athlete’s circumstances. In my observation, NIL has become one of the top factors that current recruits consider when determining where to go to school.”

Tennessee and Virginia are pursuing a temporary restraining order that would bar the NCAA from enforcing its NIL inducement ban for recruits and players in the transfer portal. More importantly, the filing states that the Court must grant the TRO by Feb. 6, the day before National Signing Day. 

This is a breaking news story and will be updated