NCAA Football 14 News Post

Judge Rules In Favor of O'Bannon, NCAA Violates Anti-Trust Law

07:31 PM - August 8, 2014 by RaychelSnr

Judge Claudia Wilkin ruled today that the NCAA is in violation of anti-trust law and must allow players to receive compensation for their names, image, and likenesses being used in various forms of media. This ruling comes a day after the NCAA voted to give the NCAA's five power conferences autonomy to create their own rules, which could lead to player compensation in various forms anyways.

Quote:


	"In a 99-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken issued an injunction �that will enjoin the NCAA from enforcing any rules or bylaws that would prohibit its member schools and conferences from offering their FBS football or Division I basketball recruits a limited share of the revenues generated from the use of their names, images, and likenesses in addition to a full grant-in-aid.� Wilken said the injunction will not prevent the NCAA from implementing rules capping the amount of money that may be paid to college athletes while they are enrolled in school, but the NCAA will not be allowed to set the cap below the cost of attendance. The injunction will also prohibit the NCAA from �enforcing any rules to prevent its member schools and conferences from offering to deposit a limited share of licensing revenue in trust for their FBS football and Division I basketball recruits, payable when they leave school or their eligibility expires,� Wilken wrote. Her injunction will allow the NCAA to set a cap on the money held in that trust, but prohibits the NCAA's cap to be less than $5,000 for every year an athlete remains academically eligible to compete."

This case is far from over however, as many expect it to go all the way to the Supreme Court. For now, the wheels are definitely turning in a direction that could allow college video games to come back into play in a fully licensed and legal basis if everyone so desired -- but it may be a year or two minimum before the legal structures to allow such a return are in place.

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Member Comments

# 81 aholbert32 @ 08/10/14 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perfect Zero


	I will tell you this: high customization flew out the window when the judge ruled against Electronic Arts. There is no way they want to go down that road again.

They won't need high customization if they have all of the players names in likenesses.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

# 82 mestevo @ 08/10/14 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	And a game with actual named players with their likeness will be a HUGE game. I think you underestimate just how much profit an annual sports game beings in of a series like NCAA...it's much better than other series specifically because it's annual revenue that shareholders can count on. So in that regards even if it's not as much money as some other IPs in the short term in the long run they are very profitable. And as others have stated EA executives have already said they are doing what they can to bring the game back so be don't need to speculate on it as it's already a fact that it's not a question of if it will come back but when..

I'm not sure real names was what was holding NCAA back from becoming 'huge' (from whatever it could have been characterized before). To me it's just more in licensing costs, likely significantly increasing up front risk of a franchise revival. A lot of those costs have yet to be figured out though and may not be for a long time.

# 83 Perfect Zero @ 08/10/14 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aholbert32


	They won't need high customization if they have all of the players names in likenesses.

But if the same Universities that did not want to be a part of the un-released NCAA Football 15 don't want to be part of future versions either, you will be missing a lot of players. This is especially true if the players get smart and dole out the rights to their likenesses sparingly.

# 84 loccdogg26 @ 08/11/14 10:24 AM

Ed O' Bannon just did an interview on Mike and Mike. He clearly stated that he did not get any money out of this lawsuit.

# 85 DaSmerg @ 08/12/14 03:23 AM

Yeah, said it before, keep saying it, will keep saying it...paying college athletes is stupid and wrong.

In regards to a NCAA game? How much more potential revenue do you really think can put out there...like video game licensing...before a minor league football and basketball system arises, draining a large swath of 'A' level talent away from the NCAA teams?

In less than a decade you could be playing with all your fully licensed amateurs alright, just it'll cost the end of generations of college athletics. But hey, it was the principal, right?

# 86 Yuss @ 08/12/14 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaSmerg


	Yeah, said it before, keep saying it, will keep saying it...paying college athletes is stupid and wrong. In regards to a NCAA game? How much more potential revenue do you really think can put out there...like video game licensing...before a minor league football and basketball system arises, draining a large swath of 'A' level talent away from the NCAA teams? In less than a decade you could be playing with all your fully licensed amateurs alright, just it'll cost the end of generations of college athletics. But hey, it was the principal, right?

The NBA already has a minor league system.The NFL doesn't need one because it has a free one in College football. Plus for marketing reasons the NBA/NFL want college football/basketball to remain popular in the United States. You can have a player become a household name before playing a single down of pro football (i.e. Johnny Manziel). Adam Silver cited marketing as one of the reasons he wants to increase the age limit to 20.

Plus a minor league system coming along and replacing college sports is not plausible. College sports are ingrained in American sports culture for almost a century. No minor league football team will be bigger than "Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame, etc. No minor league basketball teams will be bigger than Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, etc. The exposure a player gets is as close as you can get to the Pros. There's way too much money involved in major college sports for this to happen.

# 87 youbaxter @ 08/13/14 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yuss


	The NBA already has a minor league system.The NFL doesn't need one because it has a free one in College football. Plus for marketing reasons the NBA/NFL want college football/basketball to remain popular in the United States. You can have a player become a household name before playing a single down of pro football (i.e. Johnny Manziel). Adam Silver cited marketing as one of the reasons he wants to increase the age limit to 20. Plus a minor league system coming along and replacing college sports is not plausible. College sports are ingrained in American sports culture for almost a century. No minor league football team will be bigger than "Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame, etc. No minor league basketball teams will be bigger than Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, etc. The exposure a player gets is as close as you can get to the Pros. There's way too much money involved in major college sports for this to happen.

Just because that's the way it's always been, doesn't make it the right answer. I'm in the camp of saying paying college kids (money) is not a good idea. We've all seen how insanely irresponsible (college) kids are. Tossing money at them won't help the situation! These kids are going to be selling themselves left and right. Here comes the flood of iOS game for Player.X Football

# 88 mtoo22 @ 08/14/14 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbaxter


	Just because that's the way it's always been, doesn't make it the right answer. I'm in the camp of saying paying college kids (money) is not a good idea. We've all seen how insanely irresponsible (college) kids are. Tossing money at them won't help the situation! These kids are going to be selling themselves left and right. Here comes the flood of iOS game for Player.X Football

That's like saying you shouldn't eat because you can get fat.

# 89 ODogg @ 08/14/14 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtoo22


	That's like saying you shouldn't eat because you can get fat.

Dude it's the spoons. That's why people are fat. Have you ever seen someone eat soup or ice cream? They're using a spoon!!

Ban spoons and people won't get fat anymore. It's not that difficult to figure out..

# 90 mtoo22 @ 08/14/14 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	Dude it's the spoons. That's why people are fat. Have you ever seen someone eat soup or ice cream? They're using a spoon!! Ban spoons and people won't get fat anymore. It's not that difficult to figure out..

You got me there. I can't argue with common sense.

# 91 mestevo @ 08/15/14 12:02 PM

Depends what qualifies as a good thing. It's nothing until appeals are done, and even then could still be bad for college video games as we knew them. Too early to tell.

# 92 ODogg @ 08/19/14 10:54 AM

Paying players may or may not be good for college sports but is likely a really good thing for video games based on college sports...

# 93 videlsports @ 08/20/14 05:41 PM

I hope this can get sorted out fast so we can GET All Companies that want to and Can afford to make NCAA Sports.

# 94 Cardot @ 03/22/15 04:56 PM

Saw this last week:

# 95 tessl @ 03/22/15 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by videlsports


	I hope this can get sorted out fast so we can GET All Companies that want to and Can afford to make NCAA Sports.

I'd like to see it but I don't see it happening because there is no union representing college athletes and trying to get every athlete on every team to sign an agreement would be very difficult.

# 96 ODogg @ 03/23/15 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tessl


	I'd like to see it but I don't see it happening because there is no union representing college athletes and trying to get every athlete on every team to sign an agreement would be very difficult.

That's why you simply give the current athletes an option, which most will sign and all new athletes either sign it or don't get a scholarship

# 97 ODogg @ 03/23/15 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steel4Reel


	This doesnt really make sense. The customization aspect had nothing to do with the ruling against them.

I agree, they never had issue with those options, just the rosters EA shipped

# 98 tarheelguy4736 @ 03/24/15 04:40 PM

If only EA would have just made generic rosters to begin with, then we wouldn't have this mess. Personally, having generic rosters wouldn't have swayed me away from buying the game. Nor do I think it would have swayed most others from buying the game either. The legal team and upper management just didn't do their due diligence in recognizing this was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Oh well... now we just hope that 5 to 10 years from now the series will be rebooted but it just looks doubtful now. However, if there is money to be made, you bet the NCAA and EA will find a way

# 99 ODogg @ 03/24/15 06:37 PM

I'm optimistic the games will return sooner rather than later, your last sentence was spot on, way too much money here for them to not work towards making it happen asap

# 100 Tha_Mac @ 03/24/15 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tarheelguy4736


	If only EA would have just made generic rosters to begin with, then we wouldn't have this mess. Personally, having generic rosters wouldn't have swayed me away from buying the game. Nor do I think it would have swayed most others from buying the game either. The legal team and upper management just didn't do their due diligence in recognizing this was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Oh well... now we just hope that 5 to 10 years from now the series will be rebooted but it just looks doubtful now. However, if there is money to be made, you bet the NCAA and EA will find a way

Who was the first to bring up that their likeness was being exploited? I'm sure if it was a player they've played NCAA coming up as a gamer in high school. It wasn't a problem then why should it be one now?

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