NCAA Football 14 News Post

O'Bannon Legal Team Reacts to NCAA Decision

04:27 PM - July 18, 2013 by RaychelSnr

In a brief sent over to us by the O'Bannon defense team at the law firm Hagens Berman, the law firm alleges that the NCAA is trying to duck its responsibilities to the student athletes who they claim have been wronged by both the NCAA and EA.

“This announcement makes plain that the NCAA is attempting to mitigate the damage by ducking its responsibilities" co-lead counsel Steve Berman said in a statement. "We look forward to taking this case to trial and winning compensation for student-athletes whose likenesses were used without their permission, in violation of both the NCAA’s rules and the law.”

According to Berman, they are delighted the NCAA has left the video games business, "“While we are heartened they’ve stopped the practice, we believe they owe those student athletes a great deal more than their implied promise to stop stealing their images."

The O'Bannon suit is scheduled to be certified (or not) as a class action suit very soon, which will carry with it enormous possible penalties for both EA and the NCAA.

In response to the lawsuit, the NCAA's credit rating outlook was downgraded to negative by Moody's in late June. While this doesn't mean the rating has been downgraded, there is fear that should O'Bannon win, the organizations solvency could come into question.

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Member Comments

# 21 BA2929 @ 07/18/13 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by satchmykels


	Yeah, but who's this Grishman character you mentioned? "My law knowledge comes mainly from John Grishman books."

LOL. You sly dog.
I must have had John Goodman on my mind. He writes a mean book.

# 22 tHurley2010 @ 07/18/13 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goalieump413


	This, of course, has been an increasingly popular discussion across the country. Should student athletes get paid to play (football)? The answer, I think, lies in the scale to which college football has become such a powerfully profitable enterprise. Think about it, EA Sports sells an NCAA football game because college football is huge. They don't sell a college baseball game because college baseball isn't huge. It comes down to market demand. This lawsuit is more a catalyst to changing the landscape of money in college athletics than the largely academic debate that's been ongoing. Former players think that they should profit from video game sales, but that only kicks down the door to any other sale of merchandise related to their college playing career. Watch out.

Here's a shameless plug for a blog post I just wrote up:

http://www.operationsports.com/tHurl...se-for-choice/

# 23 Computalover @ 07/18/13 09:26 PM

If they win the case, whats to stop each individual schools from suing the athletes for the "payments" already made to them? i.e. scholarships, room and board, training costs, uniforms and clothing, books.. travel etc etc. some schools can be upwards of 100k plus.. if you win the battle, and you claiming to want compensation.. wouldnt that compensation be reduced by the payments already given? and they did sign the deal didnt they? its in the contract to use their likeness by the college, and the governing body.. NCAA..

# 24 Perfect Zero @ 07/18/13 09:35 PM

I am not an expert on contract law, but I would think that a case for the players being extorted through the NCAA might work. It's not like the kids have another choice (the CFL really isn't a choice when it comes to experience and playing time).

This is why the whole question of another effort from EA is far from closed. Are the universities willing to allow these lawsuits to continue? Right now it's the NCAA, but the next step is the universities themselves. It's better to close off the gap now than to let the problems continue. I want the series to continue especially since this is the best CFB game that I've ever played. However, these cases and the results from the shrapnel are not doing EA any favors.

# 25 superxero27 @ 07/18/13 11:08 PM

"Ducking their responsibilities"?

Well, what did they THINK the large software company was going to do??

# 26 MacDiiddy @ 07/18/13 11:56 PM

The only thing I really care about, outside of the presence of a college football game is

if now 2k or some other company can jump on in and make their version as well. IDK if this is even a possibility or if EA is going to make the conferences and award committees sign exclusivity deals with them, I hope not.

# 27 lord_mike @ 07/19/13 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacDiiddy


	The only thing I really care about, outside of the presence of a college football game is if now 2k or some other company can jump on in and make their version as well. IDK if this is even a possibility or if EA is going to make the conferences and award committees sign exclusivity deals with them, I hope not.

Exclusivity has been banned due to a recent Supreme Court case. Whether 2K Sports would risk it is the question. The whole "player thing" is unresolved. If they don't pay the players and the NCAA loses, then they could be screwed, but they can't go out and preemptively pay the players in the meantime, either. I can't see any way forward but for the gaming companies to simply have teams of fake players (even if it is still called Ohio State) until this is all resolved.

# 28 Sundown2600 @ 07/19/13 12:23 AM

Lol at the ppl mad at O'Bannon. Ya'll are funny man

# 29 lord_mike @ 07/19/13 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greencollarbaseball


	I can't for the life of me understand how the NCAA or schools don't have a waiver that athletes need to sign that says the school and or NCAA can use their likeness while they are in the athletic programs. It seems like that would have been thought of a long time ago.

They do. That doesn't mean it's legal.

# 30 LastExit @ 07/19/13 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLoco11


	O'Bannon's legal team will beat the likeness argument in court... I can't imagine how he loses that end of the lawsuit. Where the lawyers are going to fail, is going to be what compensation amateur athletes are entitled to. When you register with the NCAA (in any sport, not just football), you waive your rights of representation on the universities behalf. They can put you on posters, programs, television from games to sports shows, to media guides... and every athlete signs their rights away when they join NCAA division sports. O'Bannon and Keller are going to win the battle of likeliness in a game, but they're going to lose the war against the NCAA for signing their rights away. They're going to lose against a system of amateur rules (as unfair as they may be), going back to old Olympic rules that most governing bodies have adopted.

Agreed - and it seems difficult to see how they will hold EA accountable given the fact that they paid a fee to both the NCAA and the other licensing agency each year. If the NCAA, which makes the rules, wasn't finding fault in what they were doing and they are the governing authority in all of this as far as the student-athletes are concerned then it will be difficult to seek damages against EA.

# 31 simgamer0005 @ 07/19/13 02:55 AM

what are the chances that the NCAA ceases to exist? if you're goin after video games of all things, why stop there O'Bannon? might as well sue ESPN for making all that money covering college football.

# 32 K0ZZ @ 07/19/13 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goalieump413


	This, of course, has been an increasingly popular discussion across the country. Should student athletes get paid to play (football)? The answer, I think, lies in the scale to which college football has become such a powerfully profitable enterprise. Think about it, EA Sports sells an NCAA football game because college football is huge. They don't sell a college baseball game because college baseball isn't huge. It comes down to market demand. This lawsuit is more a catalyst to changing the landscape of money in college athletics than the largely academic debate that's been ongoing. Former players think that they should profit from video game sales, but that only kicks down the door to any other sale of merchandise related to their college playing career. Watch out.

This is true, this case has extremely wide sweeping ramifications. I've looked into it, and some of it could really be ugly.

# 33 K0ZZ @ 07/19/13 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simgamer0005


	what are the chances that the NCAA ceases to exist? if you're goin after video games of all things, why stop there O'Bannon? might as well sue ESPN for making all that money covering college football.

That would be the likely next step.

# 34 paconaifas @ 07/19/13 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razorback73


	If O'Bannon wins this lawsuit and college football videogames go away, I'm going to sue him for stealing my potential enjoyment of future videogames. I value the damages as a result of this at no less than $4 million. Anyone else wanna jump in on this?

I'm in. Let's sue his sorry ***

# 35 loccdogg26 @ 07/19/13 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundown2600


	Lol at the ppl mad at O'Bannon. Ya'll are funny man

Amen to that. Grown people getting mad over stuff they can't control.

# 36 Retropyro @ 07/19/13 11:48 AM

The growth of interest in College Football over the last 20 years is huge, I wonder how many people out their have had their interest in CFB either started or increased because of a video game?

# 37 tbook24 @ 07/19/13 12:01 PM

another washed out player trying to get another payday.

# 38 tHurley2010 @ 07/19/13 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbook24


	another washed out player trying to get another payday.

I've never understood this sentiment. Did O'Bannon's and Keller's careers not take off like they had imagined? Yes.

But you're also forgetting who else is on that list, names like Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell whose careers certainly weren't washed out.

Like it or not, this case has real standing and it'll be up to the courts decide. I'm no more or less unhappy than you are, but I'm not letting that cloud the fact that this case is legitimate.

# 39 Rekkapryde @ 07/19/13 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundown2600


	Lol at the ppl mad at O'Bannon. Ya'll are funny man

your life my entertainment....rediculous.

crazy how some feel that they are entitled to their entertainment no matter what.

# 40 Kaiser Wilhelm @ 07/19/13 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goalieump413


	This, of course, has been an increasingly popular discussion across the country. Should student athletes get paid to play (football)? The answer, I think, lies in the scale to which college football has become such a powerfully profitable enterprise. Think about it, EA Sports sells an NCAA football game because college football is huge. They don't sell a college baseball game because college baseball isn't huge. It comes down to market demand. This lawsuit is more a catalyst to changing the landscape of money in college athletics than the largely academic debate that's been ongoing. Former players think that they should profit from video game sales, but that only kicks down the door to any other sale of merchandise related to their college playing career. Watch out.

Depending on the school they choose, they are already compensated between 15k-100k+ a year, over a three to four year span. I still the fact that college football can hardly be considered interscholastic (focusing on the root word scholar) sports, but if they indeed decide to compensate players beyond their already lofty compensation, I'd hope they would just drop the idea that it is the University of Michigan vs Ohio State University.

Make them choose between the scholarship or its monetary equivalent.

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