News Post

Lawyers for O'Bannon Asking Judge to Deny Defense Motions

04:24 PM - August 13, 2013 by RaychelSnr

The Skinny: O'Bannon lawyers have asked a judge to throw out defense attempts to delay a class action suit ruling, calling the defense attempts "absurd" and "astonishing."

Team Ed O'Bannon is accusing the NCAA and the other defendents in the college likenesses case of delaying a decision about class-action certification in the case.

The O'Bannon team is concerned that if the proceedings are granted by the court then the case could be tied up in court for years before a decision on class-action certification is reached. In the filing, the O'Bannon legal team called the defendants' arguments and requests on the "verge of nonsensical", "astonishing", "absurd", and "astounding."

The NCAA, EA, and the CLC should be able to file a reply to the plantiff's claims.

The class action certification of the case is the next step and will determine quite a bit as some legal analysts have suggested it is the biggest decision within the case as class-action certification will likely enable thousands of current and former college football and men's basketball players -- which could raise the stakes into the billions of dollars, so it stands to reason why the defendants are trying to delay such a decision. There has been some discussion that if the case is certified as a class action, the next step will be an out of court settlement by all parties.

We'll keep an eye on this very important case to see how the case evolves next, as the future of college sports video games likely rests on the outcome of this case in some manner.

Member Comments

# 1 Jimbo614 @ 08/13/13 07:21 PM

If I read this right... and We're not just talking about just current and future players, but it's all retro active into infinity...We're talking about the end of EA, The Party's over. Everybody out of the pool!
And this has been my take on it since day one.

# 2 CLW @ 08/13/13 07:50 PM

You do realize its common place for lawyers to use over the top rhetoric to describe their opponent's position? "verge of nonsensical", "astonishing", "absurd", and "astounding." are actually quite tame for a Plaintiff's lawyer's motion as they are generally more prone to use the rhetoric than a defense lawyer that tend to be more tame and focusing on the legal argument at hand.

That being said I fully expect Plaintiffs to win the argument here. No way this liberal judge doesn't certify this case as a class action. The only interesting question is can EA/NCAA get a discretionary appeal up to the 9th Circuit and Supreme Court before a trial on the merits.

# 3 Jimbo614 @ 08/13/13 08:56 PM

You apparently know more about Law than I do.
But I don't see any way this doesn't work it's way up to the Supreme Court. There's too much money involved for either party to stop short of that.
Of course, most likely, only specific questions of the case would be answered by the Supreme Court;
I doubt they will step in to over rule a lower courts decision , unless there's something egregious.

# 4 tbook24 @ 08/15/13 02:04 PM

this would not get such a negative reaction from gamers if the suit was formed by successful pros like a Calvin "Megatron" Johnson or a Tim Duncan. It seems that the failed athletes are looking for quick paydays becasue they sucked in the pro game or failed to make it in the pro game so now they are crying for college money. they should be mad at the schools who sold them to the video game companies or moreso check their scholarship paperwork to see who really owned the proprietary rights

# 5 mjarz02 @ 08/15/13 10:06 PM

I'm not here to say that the NCAA is this wonderful institution and zero changes need to be made. Im just wondering what Ed Obannon is trying to accomplish. At my local state university it costs 20,000 a year for non-residents. Then there is another 8,500 dollars for room in board. The players also get all of their food paid for. They get free medical treatment and tons of free schools apparel. Access to countless tutors, a coaching and training staff that will help develop them into a professional player or maybe a coaching career somewhere down the line. They get opportunities that many of us would die to have, just to play a game. If you took all merchandise that was based off of "player likeness" and gave players a percentage of that cut, what could it possibly amount to? You cant just give it to star players and you cant just give it to elite teams. 85 players on a team and what 124 teams. That's 10,540 players. Lets say that amount is 500 million that is generated by items that are specifically related to "player likeness". A fair cut would be 50/50 resulting in 250 million going to those 10,540 players. That's about 23.7k per player and doesn't even pay for their tuition and room and board.

Personally i would like to see some of the money that is generated by "player likeness" go towards scholarships that are in the name of the athletes. Or maybe give it to charity.

Obviously the number of money generated by "player likeness" is an estimation but I'm really just wondering what Obannon wants.

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Lawyers for O'Bannon Asking Judge to Deny Defense Motions