Lawsuits seek to compensate college athletes

AP ^ | 19 Sep 2010 | PAUL ELIAS

[Palter]

Basketball star Ed O’Bannon and quarterback Sam Keller each earned most valuable player awards during their collegiate careers.

Now, years after playing their final games, they are pursuing what they consider a more significant collegiate legacy. They are attempting through federal lawsuits to force the NCAA to share its annual revenues with student-athletes.

“There are millions and millions of dollars being made off the sweat and grind of the student athlete,” O’Bannon said. “Student athletes see none of that other than their education.”

O’Bannon’s lawsuit seeks a share of the money the NCAA earns from licensing former players’ images in commercials, DVDs, video games and elsewhere. Keller’s claims are narrower and focused on the NCAA’s deal with Electronic Arts Inc., which makes basketball and football video games based on college players’ images.

They are making headway in court, racking up preliminary victories that have advanced their cause further than previous legal challenges to the NCAA.

The debate over compensating college players is almost as old as the NCAA, founded in 1906. Amateurs have long-been expected to compete for free and the love of sport—or at least the cost of a scholarship.

But the NCAA’s revenues have skyrocketed in recent years—it recently signed a $10.8 billion, 14-year television deal for basketball—and so have the demands of athletes to share in the money.

For its part, the NCAA is steadfast in its position that student-athletes are prohibited from receiving payment for participating in sports. It also says it has done nothing wrong in marketing itself for the benefit of its member schools and will continue to vigorously contest the lawsuits.

A judge earlier this year refused the NCAA’s request to toss out the eight lawsuits filed across the country by former student-athletes.

[VRWCmember]

They’re getting a $50K per year education for free (and probably don’t even have to pay taxes on the room/board and living expense stipend they get like other students would).

[Immerito]

...not to mention the preferential treatment that their coaches demand they receive from their professors and TA’s.

[lacrew]

I am against paying the players...but I can see his point, if his image is used in a video game.

[PrincessB]

For on the court/field play, the exchange is clear. Using the likeness of a player in a video game long after the athlete has stopped playing is a different kettle of fish.

Let’s say O’Bannon was a good enough NBA player to get his own game or be featured in an all star game that would give him a royalty (he might, I don’t follow these things). If he is in the NCAA package, that is competing with his own product.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Life’s tough all over. Think of it as an internship—an unpaid chance to learn a trade which will hopefully pay well. Come to think of it, many of these college athletes got free tuition, so they’re better off than the hardworking graduate who paid (or borrowed) for his/her education and can’t find any decent job, and has to take a no-pay internship to hope to get a foot in the door.

[GnuHere]

Isn’t the average NFL career only 2-3 years? They don’t want to “work” for the NCAA to get a 6-figure education that they could later use to make a living? I guess they all plan on being famous TV commentators or Super Bowl-winning coaches after their NFL careers? Fine. Try skipping college and going straight to the NFL. Let us know how that works for ya.