Ed O’Bannon Stands Tall Over NCAA Antitrust Settlement

The NCAA’s historic antitrust settlement will—if finalized, approved and triumphant over potential legal challenge—radically change college sports and end amateurism.

Colleges and conferences will be able to directly pay players. There will be pro sports-like salary caps and revenue sharing. Players who were denied pay for NIL, video games and broadcasting revenue will get what they’re owed. Going forward, players will gain a piece of the pie athletes have long created through their labor and marketability.

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None of this would have happened without Ed O’Bannon.

“It feels good to see justice arrive,” O’Bannon said in an interview. “It’s been a long battle.”

Fifteen years ago, the former UCLA basketball star and NBA forward brought a case that would set in motion the evolutionary changes taking place today.

O’Bannon had been retired from the game for five years at the time. He was enjoying life as a 36-year-old dad, coaching his children who played sports at high levels. A friend told O’Bannon he bought a video game called NCAA March Madness, published by Electronic Arts. O’Bannon, his friend said, was the best player in the game.

This was because the game featured classic teams, including the 1995 UCLA Bruins championship team. O’Bannon—who won the John R. Wooden Award that year as the best player in men’s college basketball—was indeed the best player. The game didn’t have O’Bannon’s name, but its depiction of his likeness had everything else, including race, height and jersey number. The same was true of O’Bannon’s teammates.

“I thought it was strange EA or the NCAA hadn’t contacted my teammates or me,” O’Bannon recalled. “I’m not a lawyer, but something seemed off about that.”

O’Bannon’s instinct was spot on. The publisher had paid for use of intellectual property associated with schools and the NCAA, but not the players for their intellectual property. This was because of the NCAA’s…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ed-o-bannon-stands-tall-040100530.html

Author : Sportico

Publish date : 2024-05-29 04:01:00

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