The O'Bannon Lawsuit Just Got Worse...

[TMJOHNS18]

Quote: Originally Posted by okstate19

EA doesn't care about bringing joy to consumers through college football games. It cares about profit. If a college football game proves to be too big of a challenge to be profitable (or if the profit barely exceeds licensing costs)...then you can probably chalk up college football games as things of the past.

Long as they make a profit they'll do it. Plus, I doubt loosing the NCAA brand will drive schools to overcharge for the use of their rights. Haven't done it now, no reason to do it in the future. Definitely don't want to go down the "greedy NCAA" road.

[21SEC]

Player likeness is not simply about the players in the game looking exactly like the real world counterparts. Any halfass lawyer can go back as far as NCAA 96 and provide evidence that match rosters in game to their real world counterpart including; height, weight, position, class, etc.

[ndfan1993]

Here I thought this thread was going to be about how 7 current players have now joined the lawsuit....this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

[21SEC]

Quote: Originally Posted by ndfan1993

Here I thought this thread was going to be about how 7 current players have now joined the lawsuit....this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Ouch I just read this, now if the judge allows for the class action suite things really get interesting. College athletics as a whole will soon be changing.

[rangerrick012]

Tired of seeing people saying obannon just had a gripe because he washed out when Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson are also a part of the suit. They didn't exactly wash out now did they?

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mashiasu

I'm a bit confused in the other thread from what I read was that the CLC was not part of the lawsuit so they would be able to agree with EA to continue the CFB series but this article states that the CLC is part of the lawsuit can somebody clear up my confusion. Thanks in advance

The lawsuit was amended and CLC was named as a defendant. They also expanded the scope of the suit to include not just video games. The suit now includes the TV revenue that the NCAA and conferences generate and the things like jerseys that Nike and Adidas sell.


If you are wondering why jerseys are an issue, Nike and Adidas regularly sell jerseys that feature star players numbers (not names) while the players are in college.

Does this make the lawsuit worse? No. If anything Obannon's lawyer screwed up initially and made the scope of the lawsuit too small. It was dumb of them to focus solely on video games initially


Before you guys start panicing about the CLC being named and it affecting future versions of EA's game....dont. CLC being named doesnt mean that a judgment against them is coming and Obannon's lawyers will have a much more difficult argument to make against CLC than EA and NCAA.

CLC's defense is simply they license the school's marks not student likenesses and have no control over whether student athletes get paid. NCAA does.

I dont see this changing the path of the lawsuit or future college football games at all.

[JLoco11]

The fact that EA wanted to pay, doesn't change anything. The fact that the NCAA took the money, still doesn't change anything with the lawsuit.

Amateur/professional rules have been very clear for the last 40+ years since the Olympics defined the differences. The NCAA has piggy backed off those rules for 40 years, which have been upheld in numerous world courts.

When athletes join the NCAA, they waive their rights for representation. Universities can use their likeness, and they cannot be compensated due to amateur rules.

Think of like like any club membership. You sign up for a club, and you have to adhere to the rules of the club. NCAA essentially operates like a private club, with it's own rules. Rules the follow the Olympic guidelines of amateurism.

O'Bannon is going to win the likeness argument... but he's going to lose the overall argument of compensation for athletes. They can portray EA, the NCAA and CLC as the greediest monsters in the world, making backroom deals and screwing over students.... but when he signed up to play basketball, signed his waiver to play in the NCAA, he signed away his right to compensation as an amateur.

[NDAlum]

I was left out of the College Baseball game 2007 by EA and PISSED!

I wanted them to use my player likeness!