Discovery Phase of Keller/OBannon Case Calls Future of NCAA Video Games in Question - RaychelSnr's Blog

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Discovery Phase of Keller/OBannon Case Calls Future of NCAA Video Games in Question Stuck

Posted on September 19, 2012 at 05:17 PM.

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There's just so much to this story, and the whole definition of college athletes and what it means to be one and what rights you have just gets more and more interesting.

This all stems from the Sam Keller/Ed O'Bannon case which was filed against EA and the NCAA for allegedly profiting off of student athlete likenesses. I have been writing about this story for over two years now, and we're just now getting to the juicy details of this case, which will go on trial starting next year.

There's no coincidence EA negotiated an end to their NCAA Exclusive license in the Madden Monopoly Lawsuit -- the end date happens to coincide with the trial date.

What we have learned today is that while College Admins and NCAA brass typically present a unified front on the definition of student athletes, what goes behind closed doors, is a little less certain:

"This whole area of name and likeness and the NCAA is a disaster leading to catastrophe as far as I can tell," wrote Perlman, a former member of the NCAA Board of Directors and law professor specializing in intellectual property. "I'm still trying to figure out by what authority the NCAA licenses these rights to the game makers and others. I looked at what our student athletes sign by way of waiver and it doesn't come close."

Wallace Renfro, a senior policy adviser for the NCAA, suggested that the term "student-athletes" be dropped in lieu of all of this. "Just refer to them as students."

The Keller/O'Bannon lawsuit claims the NCAA violates anti-trust laws by preventing universities from allowing athletes to be compensated above the value of a grant-in aid room, board, books and fees. The discovery phase (ongoing) made the NCAA hand over e-mails and confidential documents which basically shed the light on the organizations finances and communications.

Simply put, we're finding out how big of a shell game the student-athlete picture is.

"I'd rather not comment on the evidence itself," said Michael Hausfeld, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, when contacted Tuesday by ESPN. "But I will say the documents expose how the principle of amateurism was not a bedrock against the NCAA's commercialization of college sports."

Part of the argument in the case is that EA and the Collegiate Licensing Company (the NCAA's licensing arm) use player likenesses in games. EA and the NCAA contend that's not true because names aren't used, despite the likenesses within the game being close to their real-life counterparts.

From the discovery cache, you see the CLC commenting about EA using real-names in a pre-release edition of the game:

"Just a heads up, in case schools ask you this all of EA's latest 2008 March Madness basketball submissions have current players names on the jerseys in the game," wrote Wendy Harmon, a CLC marketing coordinator. "I have called Gina Ferranti at EA about this (she submits all of these basketball ones) and she assured me that they will not be using those in the final version. She said they have to put the players names in so it will calculate the correct stats but then they take them off. Just don't want the schools to freak out she said a few have already commented on it in their approval."

About an hour later, CLC senior vice president Derek Eiler forwarded the email from Harmon, notifying other top executives at the CLC. He wrote, "Just an FYI on this in case word reaches the NCAA. This is exactly the type of thing that could submarine the game if it got into the media."

Another interesting tidbit from the ESPN article is that real names almost appeared within the game anyways:

"The primary purpose of this meeting was to lobby for the rights to use rosters in video games, including the names of players on jerseys within the game. While it will still take some time (probably 12-18 months) to go through the NCAA legislative process, Greg is now confident that we will get this done. That will be a huge win for us and EA."

As of 2012, that proposal was long dead.

I can confirm as well that EA has hired big name roster editors from the community for their NCAA Football series to basically ensure roster accuracy compared to the real players. There is zero doubt that EA has indeed hired people to edit rosters for them in their NCAA Football game to make them close to player likenesses.

The question the courts will have to decide at this point is how much did EA and the NCAA violate and to what extent does this end the NCAA's claims of student athletes amateurism.

In my mind, this is a case that is going to be a landmark ruling. It's too early to say which way the courts will go, but the momentum seems to be on the side of the athletes for now.

It also makes me question the future of the NCAA Football series, as licensing costs will almost certainly radically spike (much less the amount that will have to be paid at the end of the case) in the coming years given a favorable ruling for the players. In that instance, I don't know if EA will have the stomach to continue the NCAA Football series, which has always sold well behind Madden's pace.

Comments

# 16 Bmore Irish @ Sep 20

the court case may be about player likenesses, but thats not the real issue here. the larger issue is that college athletes are exploited for millions, and yet they arent even given enough to fully live off of, its actually quite short. they need to be able to market themselves and basically be entreprenuers. if a theatre or music major can benefit from their own work, then so should athletes

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