He doesn't think that's fair. And he's trying to do something about it.
On July 21, 2009, O'Bannon filed a class-action complaint against the NCAA, seeking unspecified damages to compensate former NCAA players for the commercial use of their likenesses. "Former" is a key word here... this suit doesn't include current players. As O'Bannon explained on LostLetterman.com:
I don’t know if college athletes should be paid when they’re in school. That’s a whole different topic. I’m not going to get into that.My biggest thing right now is, once we leave the university and are done playing in the NCAA, one would think we’d be able to leave with our likeness. But we aren’t able to. If you don’t take your likeness with you, you should at least be compensated for every dime that is made off your name or likeness.
That’s where this lawsuit comes in.
How Student-Athletes Sign Their Rights Away
The core of the lawsuit is a waiver that all student-athletes are required to sign before participating in college sports. As law professor Michael McCann explained on SI.com, by signing the waiver, "student-athletes relinquish in perpetuity all future rights in the NCAA's licensing of their images and likenesses."O'Bannon's site claims that students are effectively coerced into signing -- refusing would make them ineligible to play, could mean they'd lose their scholarships.
The NCAA considers the waiver a key means of preserving the amateur status of student athletes. Of course, you could also argue that they also preserve another key focus of the NCAA -- a strong reluctance to share revenue with anyone, unless absolutely necessary.
Case in point... the NCAA specifically forbids the use of student-athlete names in the video games it licenses. But if you pick up the latest edition of a college basketball title for the PlayStation or Xbox, you'll almost certainly be able to play a North Carolina squad that features a big white senior forward that wears Tyler Hansbrough's number.
Is that "protecting" Hansbrough's amateur status? Or is that profiting off his likeness, without sharing the take?
And let's not forget... Hansbrough is a unique case. As a first-round draft pick in the NBA, he's pretty well set for the next few years. Most NCAA athletes don't get lucrative pro contracts at graduation.
What's Next?
Any cash O'Bannon wins in this suit could go into some sort of trust for athletes to draw upon when they finish school. But the implications of the case run far deeper. A win by O'Bannon's side could become a precedent for future suits used to chip away at some of the NCAA's other restrictions on compensation for student athletes.Of course, any change that relaxes those restrictions will just make it more difficult for NCAA investigators to keep the wrong people out of the game... and as we've seen several times in recent years -- O.J. Mayo, anyone? -- they're already having a fair amount of trouble in that arena.
