O'Bannon is the lead plaintiff in O'Bannon v. NCAA, an antitrust class action lawsuit filed against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on behalf of its Division I football and men's basketball players over the organization's use for commercial purposes of the images of its former student athletes.
In March 2015, O'Bannon appeared in a faux commercial on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO that criticized the NCAA's payment practices regarding student athletes.