NCAA Sam Keller vs. EA Update (Patent Arcade)

[loccdogg26]

The lawsuit would have came out regardless. Keller was just the face of it. Rob Carey is the real dude.

[da ThRONe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sting

This has been the way it's worked for decades. It's not gonna change, and it shouldn't. Kid's get scholarships to play football. Period. You gonna start paying the college students in the classroom as well since they have the power to maybe invent something or uncover something that could generate money for the school? Of course not.

Students who take part in science research get paid. And nobody has a problem with it. The biggest problem with paying student athletes seem more about public perception than structure.

Im on the fense about this. On one hand a full ride to a major university isnt anything to sneeze at. Being in college on an athletic scholarship does not seem to equal being on an academic scholarship In both requirements and revenue generated.

[ODogg]

You can tell you're thinking football when you spell fence as "fense" heh heh

[da ThRONe]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

You can tell you're thinking football when you spell fence as "fense" heh heh

Completely missed that.

[ODogg]

i figured you were thinking offense/defense when you typed it!

[marxshut]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sting

This has been the way it's worked for decades. It's not gonna change, and it shouldn't. Kid's get scholarships to play football. Period. You gonna start paying the college students in the classroom as well since they have the power to maybe invent something or uncover something that could generate money for the school? Of course not.

The money involved has not been this great for decades. Maybe for a few teams it was, but now all the BCS conference schools generate this kind of revenue through television contracts and BCS bowl payouts that are usually shared across the conference. Think colleges don't use this to generate revenue. Central Florida's recently constructed 45,000 seat stadium cost $55 million to build. This for a school that started Div 1 football in 1996. Universities realize the revenue stream and are doing all they can to capitalize on it.

You can stick your head in the sand and say it's not going to change, but that's like saying we're going to have sweatshop labor forever because the workers won't unionize. Eventually someone is going to realize the potential earnings for these kids out of HS and organize them into a group large enough to have some leverage. The NCAA will then be forced to pay athletes for their services or return to the model of the true "student athlete" where scholarships are doled out solely for academic merit.

I see this as the beginning of the paid college athlete. I'm not saying it will happen tomorrow, but certainly within the next decade.

[ODogg]

Yeah good luck organizing a bunch of high school kids and their parents to demand money instead of, or in addition to, a free (and rather expensive) education and a chance at millions of dollars. The very nature of college ball is that all players going in feel they have a shot at millions of dollars so it'll never happen. Hinsight for players like Keller is 20/20. As others have said, if he was in the NFL making millions right now he'd not be involved in this suit.

And that my friends is the reason future students will never unionize, because each player feels as if in doing so they are potentially giving up millions of dollars in the NFL..and for many students who have nothing and have grown up in poverty, that'll never happen.

Also, two more words and I rest my case: Maurice Clarett

[Legionnaire]

The kids will never organize. Decades of union-busting have left most people unschooled on the realities of unionization and collective bargaining. And even if they were halfway inclined to take up this kind of unionization effort, you're still talking about a bunch of 18 year-olds whose parents would quickly tell them to shut up and not jeopardize their free education. So that's not going to happen.

At any rate, you'd think EA/NCAA would have no problem putting a couple bucks in their pocket. I'm pretty sure student athletes already get a small allowance (intended for food, I'm sure). And I don't know what EA pays to be able to make these games, but it can't be much when you think about it (in terms of how many ways it would have to be split up if they cut the football players in on it).

Think about how popular the NFL is, yet how many years they existed in a situation where NFL players still made/make less than MLB/NHL/NBA players. Football rosters are just so big, that when you divide it up, it's less in each guy's pocket.

Iow if the NCAA decides tomorrow to share the wealth with the students appearing in EA's game, how much does that actually mean the players get? First, not all the money goes to the players, so there's an initial big split between the institutions and the players. Then further split that between 120 schools, and then split it again between 70 players per team.

I can't imagine it would be much after splitting it up. The players would probably only get what amounts to a little walking-around money in their pocket. Beer money, basically (though the NCAA would probably rather call it a "food allowance"). Though, I think for a bunch of teenagers not making any money, obviously it would be greatly appreciated.

It wouldn't constitute a breakdown in the system to put a couple extra bucks in the players' pocket. And it probably wouldn't even be hard for them to go player-to-player collecting consent to use them in these games entirely free of charge anyway. Why don't they do either of those things? Probably for no better reason than because doing those things now would be like admitting they were doing the wrong things before.