NCAA Basketball Review

Imagery

July 23rd, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized

 

Can the NCAA use basketball, football or other players’ images without asking them? This is the question that a lawsuit from Ex UCLA player Ed O’Bannon that was just begun is supposed to address. It’s an important question, because it deals with the issue of how much the NCAA can use to make a profit while the student athletes themselves are unable to make any money at all from their work. They can’t make endorsements, but the NCAA can have endorsement deals and make money off of them despite that. These players are rather upset about it, particularly as it comes to video games, which use their images explicitly or implicitly without them signing a release or anything. The NCAA wants to keep the players from getting into the commercial aspects of things, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens with this lawsuit as well as the other ones that are in the courts right now.