1. Explain the legal issue selected and how it affects the sports world.
2. Review the legal cases surrounding this sport law issue.
3. Suggest changes or modifications that might strengthen the current law.
The topic I chose for the research paper was O’Bannon vs. NCAA, because I found this case has lots of aspects worth discussing, like one of the defendants is Electronic Arts Inc., a videogame corporation (I played lots of videogames from EA like NBA LIVE series and FIFA series and I do love them), which made me curious, I would like to know more about EA did in this case and how these actions affected the judgment.
Plaintiffs are a group of current and former college student-athletes. They brought this antitrust class action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2009 to challenge the association’s rules restricting compensation for elite men’s football and basketball players. In particular, Plaintiffs seek to challenge the set of rules that bar student-athletes from receiving a share of the revenue that the NCAA and its member schools earn from the sale of licenses to use the student-athletes’ names, images, and likenesses in videogames, live game telecasts,
…show more content…
One useful way to attract those high-profile student-athletes is selling goods and offering high-quality services, including high-standard facilities, coaches, chances to play in front of thousands of fans (sometimes TV broadcasted), etc. Also, those schools agreed to pay cost of participating intercollegiate athletic events for targeted student-athletes, and the cost would not be covered in scholarship provided. However, in order to acquire those benefits, targeted student-athletes have to let their names and images to be used for commercial use like advertisements and videogames like
An argument can be based on whether or not the NFL should be held liable when players know what a violent sport they participate in. The NFL is 10 Billion dollar a year business and the majority of their income are made through the exploitation of their players (Grove, J 760). The argument can be made that players should seek compensation for injuries because salaries for injured players are not guaranteed beyond the season in which the injury is sustained (Grove, J 760). It has been posed as whether or not the government should step in to help regulate owed compensation. One way the state or federal government can intervene and impose legislative act...
Those who play popular and highly competitive college sports are treated unfairly. The colleges and universities with successful sports like football and basketball receive millions of dollars in television and ad space revenues, so do the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which is the governing body of big time college sports. Many coaches are also paid over $1 million per year. Meanwhile, the players that help the colleges receive these millions of dollars are forbidden to receive any gifts or money for their athletic achievements and performances. As a solution college athletes ...
Since the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) inception in 1906 there have been laws in place to protect the amateurism status of its student athletes. Over the last 100 years the NCAA has morphed into a multimillion dollar business. The success and revenue that student athletes have brought the NCAA and its member institutions has sparked a debate of whether or not to compensate players for paying. Research in the field has focused on the debate and reasons to pay players and reasons not to. There has been little attempt to assert the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of the student athletes. The purpose of this study is to examine what the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of the student athletes towards NCAA amateurism laws. Informal face to face interviews with Division 1 student athletes at universities in Indiana will be conducted to get an analysis of the attitudes, opinions, and feelings Division 1 student athletes have towards NCAA Amateurism laws.
In 2009, former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon was named as the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit brought on by former college and basketball players towards the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company. The lawsuit was centered on the issue of the NCAA selling the “likeness” of formers athlete through rebroadcasts, DVDs, photos, video games, etc., without offering any compensation to the former players included. The NCAA requires any athlete that wishes to compete in a Division I sport to sign a Student-Athlete Statement, which declares their status as amateurs and agrees to give up any compensation for participating in the sport.
Imagine a business that brings in $60 million each year ,and the people fueling that industry receive none of the revenue(Wieberg). These same people work 40 hours in their sport every week, these “people” are college athletes. The NCAA, the governing body for major college sports, is the industry doing this to college athletes(Edelman). This is an issue of exploitation and control by large institutions over primarily poor people, the NCAA is guiding them in directions to make money for everybody while doing everything possible to keep the players out of the money. College Athletes deserve profit because they bring in large revenue into their program, the NCAA, and they invest tons of time into their sport.
College athletes attend post-secondary schools in order to receive an education and to participate in sports. “Student athletes participate in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which he or she is enrolled. Student athletes must typically balance the roles of being a full-time student and a full-time athlete” (“Student athlete” 1). Additionally, some people believe athletes should receive a salary. However, paying college athletes hurts the school, the sports, and the athletes.
A football prodigy will choose a school best fit for him regardless if he gets a bigger bid. For example, if the football prodigy had a choice to go to a school where they had a better business program because he wanted a backup plan incase he did not get drafted or there was something unfortunate to end his football career, he would choose a that school instead of a school that presented a bigger amount but did not have as a business program as the other school. In my opinion, paying those student athletes in the highest revenue earning sports will encourage them to do better in the classroom. There is an uncertain future for college athletes, very few reach the professional level and these student-athletes are sacrificing their time and bodies to reach this goal. Underclassmen are keen on making the leap to become professional athletes because the graduation rates of college athletes are not very encouraging. With no extra money for these student-athletes, they may also turn to fast (usually illegal) ways to earn money, such example may be to sell drugs. So paying student-athletes might be a way to keep these athletes eligible and safe.
So not only do they get to go to college, compete with their sport’s team, they get a place to stay and the living expenses paid for in full. This means that the students get to go to class, go to practice and the go home and not have to worry about bills, loans, or food. For a college kid, those are the main things they think about. Why would athletes need to get extra money when they have everything they already need? There would be no purpose in that whatsoever.
The reality is that college sports programs, namely the "big name" programs such as football and basketball programs at marquee schools, are businesses that stand to make a large amount of money for their respective schools. According to an article in the Harvard Journal on Legislation, "[i]n the past twelve years, the amount of money generated by these two sports has increased nearly 300%, such that they now fund almost all other sports programs. 41 Harv. J. on Legis. 319. The student-athletes who participate in these programs are part of the reason why these schools stand to make such handsome profits: through ticket sales, endorsement deals, broadcasting deals, and jersey sales (although player names cannot be represented on jerseys), among other things.
Over time the landscape of college sports in the United States have changed drastically. Since it was created in 1906, the format of the “IAAUS” has been drastically altered five times. Not to mention the seemingly constant realignment of teams, placing teams like Memphis in the “Big East” even though they are not located in the east. (Smith, Ronald) The people who are most affected by the atrocities preformed by the NCAA are the players. Every higher up in the NCAA, from the coaches to the president of the NCAA get paid boatloads of money. These people coaches, athletic directors, athletic trainers, everyone involved are getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and at the big time schools millions. Everyone gets paid except for the players, and the players are the ones who deserve it the most. They put hours upon hours into their programs and Universities on top of the school work they are required to due. They risk getting hurt or even severely, and buried under years of high medical bills. Meanwhile, the NCAA higher ups are living large off their “non-profit organization.” The NCAA recently made a huge deal with CBS and CBS sports. The deal is worth 11.2 billion dollars. The University of Alabama, alone, reported $143.4 million in athletic revenue during 2012-13. That is more money than any of the NHL franchises and 25 of the 30 NBA franchises. (Branch, Taylor) Alabama football players dedicate their lives to football and in turn the NCAA. They are the most valuable pieces to the billions of dollars the NCAA rakes in every year. In most businesses, the most important employees get paid the most. In the case of the NCAA, their most important employees are not even on the pay role.
The proposal of payment toNCAA student-athletes has begun major conversations and arguments nationwide with people expressing their take on it. “This tension has been going on for years. It has gotten greater now because the magnitude of dollars has gotten really large” (NCAA). I am a student athlete at Nicholls State University and at first thought, I thought it would be a good idea to be able to be paid as a student-athlete.After much research however; I have come to many conclusions why the payment of athletes should not take place at the collegiate level.The payment of athletes is only for athletes at the professional level. They are experts at what they do whether it is Major League Baseball, Pro Basketball, Professional Football, or any other professional sport and they work for that franchise or company as an employee. The payment of NCAA college athletes will deteriorate the value of school to athletes, create contract disputes at both the college and professional level, kill recruiting of athletes, cause chaos over the payment of one sport versus another, and it will alter the principles set by the NCAA’s founder Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Under Roosevelt and NCAA, athletes were put under the term of a “student-athlete” as an amateur. All student athletes who sign the NCAA papers to play college athletics agree to compete as an amateur athlete. The definition of an amateur is a person who “engages in a sport, study, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons” (Dictonary.com).
The NCAA prides itself as an organization dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of student-athletes and equipping them with the skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life. In order to ensure that participants are students first and athletes second the NCAA has specific rules pertaining to athlete amateurism. The requirements prohibit contracts and tryouts with professional teams, salary for participating in athletics, prize money, and representation by an agent. (Amateurism) These rules not only limit the freedom of the player but also put the player at risk of being taken advantage of due to the lack of a players union and illegality of employing an agent. Other aspects of the NCAA’s rule book have been under scrutiny as well. Marc Edelman, Professor of Law at Baruch College, wrote in his treatise: Why the NCAA’s No-Pay Rules Violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act that courts are now beginning to overturn certain rules that are deemed anticompetitive. This development is important because according to the Sherman Act “Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherw...
Abstract: Collegiate athletes participating in the two revenue sports (football, men's basketball) sacrifice their time, education, and risk physical harm for their respected programs. The players are controlled by a governing body (NCAA) that dictates when they can show up to work, and when they cannot show up for work. They are restricted from making any substantial financial gains outside of their sports arena. These athletes receive no compensation for their efforts, while others prosper from their abilities. The athletes participating in the two revenue sports of college athletics, football and men's basketball should be compensated for their time, dedication, and work put forth in their respected sports.
In the sports world, as much as in the political, social or corporate world, ethics is put to the test at all times. Most athletes spend their career trying to overcome many barriers in order to gain notoriety and achieve good results with the objective of winning titles and, especially, to have great future opportunities, as for example, being awarded with an athletic scholarship.
Samantha Ureno Professor Zia English 99 22 January 2016 The Science Behind Sports Authority “Nothing in a grocery store is where it is by accident. Every item on a shelf has been planned” (Paco Underhill). In the articles, “The Science of Shopping” by Malcolm Gladwell and “How Target Knows What You Want Before You Do” by Charles Duhigg, these authors exemplify effective marketing strategies which were composed by Paco Underhill and Andrew Pole. Underhill is an environmental psychologist; additionally he employs the basic idea that one’s surroundings influences ones behavior and invented structuring man-made environments to make them conducive to retail purposes.