Should College Athletes Be Paid for Video Games?
Class-action lawsuit backdrop to NCAA Football 10 release
By LAURENCE SCOTT
Updated 11:39 PM EDT, Mon, Jul 13, 2009
NCAA Football 10 from Electronic Arts is being released weeks before the start of the Fall semester, but nonetheless is in the middle of a brewing licensing storm this summer.
College football has become big business and how that plays into this year’s version of the game is part of the discussion had in the adjacent embedded video clip.
Meanwhile, former Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller, a Danville, Calif. native who transferred to Lincoln from Arizona State, has filed a class-action lawsuit against EA and the NCAA arguing that both entities profit off the likeness of individual college football and basketball players.
A recent New York Times article quotes Keller, who had auditioned for the Oakland Raiders last season and is now living in Scottsdale: “We signed a paper at the beginning of college saying we couldn’t benefit from our name… So why was the NCAA turning a blind eye to this and allowing EA Sports to take our likenesses and make big bucks off it?”
EA is and has been careful not to use players names on the back of their jerseys, yet numbers and general characteristics are very similar and especially obvious with many of the most notable athletes.
It’s a delicate balance between making the game feel authentic to fans, but also maintaining that it’s all about fun and games and a bit of fantasy. One of the game’s new online features allows you to create your own team -- ostensibly, part of your own university -- but, without an ‘.edu’ domain as you try your luck against top ranked teams.
Another web-based integration is the Season Showdown, where you can earn credits for your favorite school in a variety of competitions to see which university’s brand will rise to number one.
The game itself is not much different from last season’s version, but this year the question has arisen; ‘Do college athletes deserve part of the cut in the same way that the NFL’s union has delivered to its players or is getting a free college education enough?’
Laurence Scott will soon review this season’s version of the much-anticipated pro game, Madden NFL 10.
First Published: Jul 13, 2009 2:43 PM EDT on NBC Bay Area
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