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NCAA Football 14 News Post


The settlement in the Ed O'Bannon case has been approved by Judge Claudia Wilken, at a sum total of $60 million.

Quote:
"A judge granted approval a $60 million settlement of several class-action lawsuits relating to video game makers using the names, images and likenesses of college football and men's college basketball players.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken approved a $60 million payment to the players on Thursday and said that any student-athlete who wants in on the claim must file by July 31. Objectors to the settlement have 30 days to appeal once Wilken finalizes the approval.

“It's a landmark day,” an attorney for the plaintiffs, Steve Berman said to USA Today. “It's the first time student-athletes will get paid for use of their name, image and likeness—and we’re anxious to get the settlement funds to the students.”

More than 20,000 claims were filed by original July 2 deadline and some players will receive a maximum of $7,200, which can be handed out as early as September, depending on the pace of the appeals."

Obviously this was not unexpected, this was the next step in the process to finalizing the case and clearing it out of the way. There is a 30-day objection waiting period before the funds can begin to be handed out. The most interesting note from the settlement is that current college players will be paid for their likenesses used in previous games and their eligibility will not be affected from that payment, which will mark a first for collegiate sports.

As far as the future and what this means for any eventual return of college sports games, it is one more hurdle that is cleared. The big one will be the NCAA formalizing a process where players can be paid for their likenesses in video games -- but its not clear if there is much of a push for that at the present time. Any such changes would have to almost certainly be approved at the NCAA general convention in January, but you'd likely hear of plans to bring it up and vote on it before then.

The best case scenario is that all of the stars and moons align, and the legal structures are put in place for a 2017 return for college games, as anything before that seems rather unlikely. Even a 2017 return is unlikely, but it would be the most likely earliest time period you could expect anything.

Update: Late last night, the NCAA decided to file for a stay in the injunction on the O'Bannon case. What this means is that they have decided that they are going to take this case to the highest court (Supreme Court) if need be, thus tying up the suit and the awards being offered for at least a couple more years. If the case gets to the Supreme Court, it'd get there either in 2016 or 2017 -- which means anything I wrote above about college games being possible with a decision from the NCAA is now moot since the case will be tied up for awhile longer. The settlement payments are still going out from EA/CLC however. The prospect of litigation being settled was a crucial step...but now that it is indeed not -- we're back to waiting for litigation to be settled. Viva la NCAA Football 14?

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Member Comments
# 1 snc237 @ 07/17/15 03:11 PM
Well good news. NCAA football 2019 here I come
 
# 2 PackerBacker123 @ 07/17/15 03:38 PM
TBH I'd rather have college hoops back rather than NCAA Football, considering I'm going to purchase Madden anyway.
 
# 3 dovuto86 @ 07/17/15 04:22 PM
The funniest thing about this is that 2K was not part of the lawsuit, yet when you played online games of the NCAA basketball 2k games, the players names were actually used whereas EA just used numbers
 
# 4 frankrizzo380 @ 07/17/15 04:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by snc237
Well good news. NCAA football 2019 here I come
Im bettin on ncaa 17... Spring release....wishful thinking i know
 
# 5 videlsports @ 07/17/15 08:22 PM
YEEEEEEEESSSS (school girl scream LOOL) ahem I mean this is good news. I would gladly invest my money for College sports video game.
 
# 6 cool667 @ 07/18/15 01:01 AM
i could seen 2017 Maybe if it goes thought fast December of this year
 
# 7 Steve_OS @ 07/18/15 12:01 PM
Chris updated the story w/ some more news...
 
# 8 legacyme3 @ 07/18/15 03:18 PM
NCAA 2020. Believe!
 
# 9 BadAssHskr @ 07/18/15 03:31 PM
Well S---.
 
# 10 spidertour02 @ 07/18/15 03:52 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by NEOPARADIGM
What happened to that whole "they don't need the NCAA anyway" thing? Where they could hypothetically produce something a bit more on the generic side but sign deals with individual conferences and include some robust team-building tools?

Heck, with the right tools all the community would need is the base game (Madden engine) and we'd handle the rest.

Where's the creative thinking to get around this garbage?

Sucks.
The problem with your scenario is that it would invite another lawsuit, especially considering that the relevant parties would be watching the game more closely.
 
# 11 PointmanPerry @ 07/18/15 09:29 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by NEOPARADIGM
What happened to that whole "they don't need the NCAA anyway" thing? Where they could hypothetically produce something a bit more on the generic side but sign deals with individual conferences and include some robust team-building tools?

Heck, with the right tools all the community would need is the base game (Madden engine) and we'd handle the rest.

Where's the creative thinking to get around this garbage?

Sucks.
the madden engine sucks and needs to be scraped. The dev team working on it changes every year or two and leaves many answered bugs that pile on and cant be fixed.
 
# 12 kehlis @ 07/18/15 09:37 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by spidertour02
The problem with your scenario is that it would invite another lawsuit
How would a generic game with no specific players invite another lawsuit?

They would probably have to leave out the customization options until the dust settles but there is absolutely no ground for a lawsuit if no players likenesses are used.
 
# 13 redsox4evur @ 07/18/15 09:53 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by kehlis
How would a generic game with no specific players invite another lawsuit?

They would probably have to leave out the customization options until the dust settles but there is absolutely no ground for a lawsuit if no players likenesses are used.
I think they could get away customization as long as the likenesses are as far away from a true player's likeness. Because wasn't the whole lawsuit filed because the likenesses that came out of the box were too real or I am not remembering correctly?
 
# 14 kehlis @ 07/18/15 10:03 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by redsox4evur
I think they could get away customization as long as the likenesses are as far away from a true player's likeness. Because wasn't the whole lawsuit filed because the likenesses that came out of the box were too real or I am not remembering correctly?
No you aren't misremembering at all and you're correct they probably could get away with it.

I'm just saying I wouldn't blame them if they were a little gunshy about it until this is all settled.
 
# 15 redsox4evur @ 07/18/15 10:06 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by kehlis
No you aren't misremembering at all and you're correct they probably could get away with it.

I'm just saying I wouldn't blame them if they were a little gunshy about it until this is all settled.
Oh yea I agree they should be gunshy and honestly I wouldn't blame them at all that if they do that and that they seem to be with their other games in the past couple of years.
 
# 16 aholbert32 @ 07/18/15 11:24 PM
FYI, just because they filed for a stay doesnt meant that it will be granted.
 
# 17 DJ @ 07/18/15 11:29 PM
I don't know if EA will dip its toes back into the NCAA waters. I know the football game sold well, but is it really worth the investment at this point? It'd take a few months, minimum to round up a team to work on the game, and then likely two years to develop something for release.

Sorry to say, but I don't think the NCAA series is coming back, at least at EA Sports.
 
# 18 aholbert32 @ 07/18/15 11:49 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ
I don't know if EA will dip its toes back into the NCAA waters. I know the football game sold well, but is it really worth the investment at this point? It'd take a few months, minimum to round up a team to work on the game, and then likely two years to develop something for release.

Sorry to say, but I don't think the NCAA series is coming back, at least at EA Sports.
Why wouldnt they? The game was more profitable than Live, UFC, Golf and NHL.

If they dont they are potentially leaving a big hole once this compensation part is figured out where a competitor could swoop in and take part of the football market.
 
# 19 cowboy_kmoney @ 07/19/15 02:04 AM
I think EA will b back on when this is out the way. And for all we knw they may already have a game in place working on it. Who knows.
 
# 20 weathersports20 @ 07/19/15 02:58 AM
By reading this looks like they already working on the next game. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2013/07/17/ea-ncaa-football-video-game/2530157/
 

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