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Luck wants to make a difference

New vice-president of regulatory affairs has broad vision for NCAA

INDIANAPOLIS — Oliver Luck is ready to embark on another rebuilding project.

He hopes to rebuild trust and confidence in the NCAA. He’s pushing for clearer rules, a more efficient enforcement system and punishments that are easy to understand. And he wants to protect the “fundamental” right of college athletes to get paid for the use of their names, images and likenesses.

On Thursday, the NCAA’s new executive vice president for regulatory affairs outlined a broad vision to change the image of an organization already in the midst of a major overhaul.

“I believe both as an individual and as an attorney in those fundamental rights that a student-athlete has, and I’m looking forward to having a longer dialogue with Mark and many others,” Luck said, referring to his new boss -- NCAA President Mark Emmert. “Ultimately, I think what we want to do is to what’s right for student-athletes.”

Earlier this year, Luck said players had a “constitutional right” to be compensated for the use of their names, images or likenesses. On Thursday, he called it a “fundamental right.”

Regardless, the soon-to-be ex-West Virginia athletic director contends players should be compensated for those uses, which should create some interesting internal discussions with Emmert and NCAA lawyers, who have forcefully argued in court and in public that a loss in the Ed O’Bannon case over that very issue could change the foundation of college sports.

Luck said he knows that some university and conference administrators are already making contingency plans for an appellate court loss in the O’Bannon case.

“I can tell you, just like in the Big 12 with my athletic director colleagues, all the conferences are looking very closely at (U.S. District) Judge (Claudia) Wilkens’ decision, trying to figure out how to implement that,” Luck said. “Some decisions by some institutions have already been made to provide the full trust fund payments for a student-athlete’s names, image and likeness.”

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