Former Nebraska QB Sam Keller Suing EA Sports and the NCAA

May

08

by Mike Fleming at 7:14 am (2 Comments) Games | ,

While reading my morning sports news, I came across this article on ESPN.com about former Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller taking EA Sports and the NCAA to court. Keller is claiming that EA Sports wrongly uses the names and likenesses of collegiate athletes and that the NCAA allows this to happen. If you have ever played one of the NCAA games (basketball or football) you know that due to NCAA rules the makers of the game cannot use real names or pictures of the athletes. The rating of the players are true to life, but that’s about it. The lawsuit goes on to say that the games dodge this rule by allowing owners of the game to easily share files that contain entire rosters, including player names and bio information.

Now, some would not see the harm in this. But remember that NCAA athletes do not get paid (unless you count the scholarships which provides a free education for some). So the main contention in this lawsuit appears to be that EA Sports and the NCAA are profiting (and profiting greatly I might add) from these games, but the athletes get nothing and the games are built around the athletes.

So what are your thoughts on this lawsuit? And, do you think the athletes should get some kind of compensation?

Categories Games | Tags: ,

2 Responses to “Former Nebraska QB Sam Keller Suing EA Sports and the NCAA”

  1. andy matthews

    May 8, 2009
    7:32 am
    reply

    I personally don’t care about sports but Frank Deford (NPR commentator) had an excellent story about this sort of thing just the other day:

    Why Play Free For The NCAA When Europe Pays?
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103571848

  2. Brian Rinaldi

    May 8, 2009
    8:48 am
    reply

    Once upon a time, this was about getting a damn education. Sadly, when there is this much money to be made, everyone wants a piece of it. This includes universities even skirting the rules to bring in players they shouldn’t – who should never even qualify for entrance into the school and who bypass all the rules at the school because of their special status. And the schools that don’t do that? Well they have a much harder time competing.

    I think the players get plenty of benefits already and should stop their bitching. And people should stop egging them on by making them think they should get paid to play college sports. Let’s not compound the problems that the big business of college sports already causes by now adding salaries for player into the mix. That’s just nuts imo.

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