Ed O'Bannon's lawsuit earns a key ruling, but at what cost

Late Monday evening, a Supreme Court judge denied the NCAA's motion to dismiss the lawsuit that former UCLA Bruin Ed O'Bannon filed last summer regarding the NCAA's use of the likeness of former players.

In short, the issue is that the NCAA is profiting off of former players -- via video games, selling clips of memorable plays (Christian Laettner's jumper, Bryce Drew's buzzer-beater, etc.), old jersey sales, television rebroadcasts -- without giving a time to the players involved. O'Bannon's argument is based around the thought that signing on for an athletic scholarship does not allow the NCAA to use his likeness in perpetuity.

And he's right.

This is a significant ruling for all parties. For the first time, the estimated $4 billion in NCAA licensing deals will be exposed.

“The key to this order is that it opens the door to the discovery process, and we soon can begin collecting evidence from the NCAA [and its member schools and conferences], taking depositions, and uncovering everything that it wanted to hide and keep from the public’s and athletes’ view,” said Jon King, partner at Hausfeld LLP, one of the firms handling the class-action suit.

“This is a truly historic day – to our knowledge, no one has ever gotten behind the scenes to examine how student-athletes’ current and future rights in their images are divided up and sold,” King said.

But that's not the only issue that the NCAA is facing with this lawsuit. Pete Thamel explains:

Michael McCann, a professor at Vermont Law School who specializes in sports law, called Monday’s ruling a “setback” for the N.C.A.A. He said that the case would probably be followed closely by members of Congress who were interested in the N.C.A.A.’s tax-exempt status.

“I think it’s an important case because it gets at the core of the student-athlete mission and the issue that new players have in terms of waving away potential benefits they may enjoy when they’re out of college,” McCann said.

While there is no doubt this is a landmark ruling, and one that anyone who believes in the rights of student-athletes should follow closely, it could not have come at a worse time for college basketball.

According to USA Today, fewer than two dozen DI programs have financially self-sufficient athletic departments. Some $800 million in subsidies, provided by taxpayers and students fees, keeps the rest of the programs afloat. While there's no doubt that any ruling will not be for some time, the threat of a large initial payout and the subsequent revenue share that the NCAA is facing only heightens their money issues.

Which means they need to bring in more money.

One way is to switch to a tournament format for football, which is a good thing.

Another?

Expand to a 96 team NCAA Tournament. Its simple really. More game played = more ticket sales = more advertising revenue = more money for the NCAA.

I'm not saying you shouldn't applaud O'Bannon or support his cause. He is sticking his neck out to fight for former athletes that have been screwed over by the NCAA. He is opening himself up to personal attacks. He is putting his legacy on the line. And while he is doing it for a cause I believe is right, keep in mind what the collateral damage could be.

The NCAA Tournament we know and love is on life support right now.

Monday's ruling may have pulled the plug.

Continue reading...

Another Ed O'Bannon sighting, this time as a broadcaster

We've talked quite a bit about Ed O'Bannon over the years here at BIAH. It started in the summer of 2008 when we did a "Where Are They Now?" segment on him. He was a brief internet sensation as the Washington Post followed suit this summer, catching up with O'Bannon the used car salesman.

But that was far from all we would hear about O'Bannon.

There was the video last summer where he responded to Lil' Wayne's line "I'll leave you missin' like the f-in O'Bannons."

Ed O'Bannon went from player of the year to used car salesman to college hoops broadcaster.
(photo credit: WaPo)

Then Ed became the lead plaintiff for a group suing the NCAA because they can make money off the likenesses and successes of former college players.

Then, O'Bannon made headlines as he became a high school coach at the Henderson School in Nevada.

Now?

Yesterday, O'Bannon made his debut as a broadcaster, doing color commentary for HoopTV as they covered the Las Vegas Invitational.

O'Bannon is college hoops royalty. He won the 1995 national player of the year award after leading UCLA to their 11th national title. He would go on to be the 9th pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, but injuries derailed his NBA career. After bouncing around the world playing in various professional leagues, O'Bannon retired and finally settled in Nevada, becoming a car salesman.

We're glad to see O'Bannon back involved in college hoops. We loved him at UCLA.

We didn't get a chance to see O'Bannon's broadcast. Did anyone? How did he do?

Continue reading...

Ed O'Bannon suing the NCAA

Last summer, we did a Where Are They Now? piece on Ed O'Bannon, the former UCLA standout turned Las Vegas car salesman.

I don't think anyone is going to be asking that question again anytime soon.

Yesterday, Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports broke the story that Ed O'Bannon will be the lead plaintiff (on behalf of all current and former DI football and men's basketball players) in a class action lawsuit against the NCAA. The case centers around the fact that the NCAA can cash in on the likenesses, the accomplishments, and the memorabilia sales of former players (be it via video games, commercials, jersey sales, etc.) in perpetuity without those players seeing a dime.

Apparently, they have a case (for those better versed in legalese than I go read what Michael McMann has to say about the case at SI - he breaks everything down for you). I'm no lawyer, but I can tell you that when you are represented by a firm that won reparations for Holocaust survivors, price fixing cartels, and benefactors of slave labor, there is a good chance a large amount of money can be made.

Ed O'Bannon is the lead plaintiff in a case against the NCAA
involving their use of a players likeness after graduation.
(photo credit: lowposts.com)

Do I need even need to mention how big of a deal this case is?

Seriously, think about what this covers - ESPN Classic replays; a Carmelo Anthony Syracuse jersey; those Pontiac game changing performance commercials; any copy of NCAA video games.

In fact, the video game is where the entire case originated. From the Wetzel article:

Last winter, Ed O'Bannon discovered that a couple of kids down the street didn't just know the star of the 1995 UCLA national championship team as a friend of their dad, a really tall neighbor or even as a guy who shows up on ESPN Classic every once in a while. They knew O’Bannon – his tendencies, his number 31, even the mechanics of his lefty jump shot – from playing a video game that featured classic college teams. "They literally played me on a video game," O'Bannon told Yahoo! Sports on Saturday. "You could play the '95 Bruins. It didn't have my name, but it had my number, left-handed, it looked like me. It was everything but the name. My friend kind of looked at me and said, 'you know what’s sad about this whole thing? You're not getting paid for it.' I was just like, 'wow, you're right.' It just kind of weighed on me."

An interesting side note to this case is that they are not pushing for athletes currently on scholarship to get paid; only that they players see a cut of the profits from collegiate licensed merchandise once they move on from the NCAA.

According to Wetzel, collegiate licensed merchandise is an estimated $4 billion industry. These are rough economic times for the NCAA and its member institutions, and if O'Bannon happens to prevail, the NCAA may be forced to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Don't cry for the NCAA. They make money hand over fist off of these kids while they are in school. OK, I get it, the NCAA is technically a non-profit organization and these kids are technically amateur athletes. While I may not completely agree with the current structure, I can tolerate it simply because I love the ideal of a "student-athlete" representing his school.

But why shouldn't former players like O'Bannon get a taste once their collegiate careers come to an end?

The guys over at RTC say it best:

Frankly, it’s about effin’ time. As Dan Wetzel poignantly notes in his article breaking the story today, the players are painted into a (legally unrepresented) corner at 17 or 18 years old when all they’re really worried about is getting their eligibility to play college sports. We understand why the NCAA doesn’t want its current players profiting off of their likenesses while an amateur, but why does the NCAA retain 100% of those rights for the rest of those players’ lives? Why does Texas Western profit off of 1966 jerseys of #14 Bobby Joe Hill, but not the player (or the estate in Hill’s case) some 40+ years later? Same thing with Jerry Rice’s MVSU #88 jersey? Or, as O’Bannon stated in his complaint, why doesn’t he see a dime for an EA Sports video game licensed by the NCAA that clearly shows his silky smooth left-handed collegiate “self” running around making shots and ripping down rebounds as a 1995 UCLA Bruin? It’s absolutely ludicrous, and we’d really like to see the NCAA take it on the chin this time around.

One last note - O'Bannon explains his rationale for becoming the lead plaintiff over at Lost Letterman.

Continue reading...

"I'll leave you missin' like the f*ckin' O'Bannons"

For anyone that follows The Dagger, they posted their top 10 NCAA Riches to NBA Rags players. Tops on that list? Ed O'Bannon.

The guys at The Dagger weren't the only ones to notice O'Bannon's fall from stardom (although, to be fair, we wrote about this last summer. I'm just sayin').

Lil' Wayne did too.

On a track off of his Dedication 2 mixtape called "Cannon" (lyrics very NSFW), Lil' Wayne gets a shot in against the O'Bannon brothers.

Listen close, I got duct tape and rope, I'll leave you missing like the f-cking O'Bannons.

First things first, the line is pretty clever (for those that only know Wayne through his new music, this mixtape came out in 2006 when he was the best in the rap game and before he turned into a member of Fallout Boy). But it is a bit of a cheap shot.

The guys over at Jerseychaser.com caught up with the O'Bannons recently and asked them about the line:



Charles is still playing ball out in Japan (his reaction to the lyric was pretty funny: "Come see me on the court, lil' fella. I will dunk on you"), while Ed's plight as a car salesman in Las Vegas became widely publicized with this Washington Post article.

Continue reading...

Wednesday Where Are They Now?: Ed O'Bannon

Ever wonder what happened to those college stars that couldn't catch on in the NBA? The guys that put up the great numbers or the guys that left early, and were never heard from again? Every Wednesday, we at BIAH will take a look at a former college star that never made it in the NBA, and we will update you on where he is playing or what he is doing. We're guessing the results will surprise you. To request a player, leave a comment in the comments section.

Ed O'Bannon, UCLA

Ed O'Bannon was a big time recruit, graduating from Artesia High School in Southern California as a McDonald's all-american. He originally committed to UNLV, but once the program came under probation as a result of Jerry Tarkanian's NCAA violations, he decided to attend UCLA. He joined the Bruins with huge expectations, but had to redshirt during the 1990-91 season after undergoing knee surgery for a torn acl. He came back the next year, but only averaged 12 minutes and thus put up mediocre numbers. The Bruins had a great season, however, going 28-5, winning the Pac-10, and advancing to the Elite 8.

But he exploded during his sophomore year and never looked back, averaging 16.7 ppg and 7.0 rpg, improving those numbers to 18.4 ppg and 8.8 rpg his junior campaign. The Bruins did not experience the same team success during those two years, getting knocked out in the second and first rounds, respectively. His senior year was his best, when he averaged 20.4 ppg and 8.3 rpg, as UCLA went 32-1 en route to a Pac-10 title, number 1 seed, and national title, UCLA's first since the days of John Wooden. O'Bannon was not only named most outstanding player in the Final Four (which included a 30 point and 17 rebound performance in the finals), but he was named NCAA Player of the year by multiple sources, including winning the Wooden Award.

O'Bannon slid to the ninth pick in the draft, mainly because of concerns over his knee, his size, and the fact that he was 23 years old when he graduated. Those concerns would prove to be warranted. O'Bannon's surgically reconstructed knee meant that he no longer had the athleticism to be a small forward at the NBA level, and he was too small and slender to be an NBA power forward, which means he was stuck with the dreaded "tweener" label. He hung around the league for two years, averaging 6.2 ppg and 4.2 rpg for the Nets in 1995-96 and 3.7 ppg and 2.3 rpg in 1996-97 for the Nets and the Mavs. During that season, O'Bannon was traded to the Magic, who promptly waived him.

Over the next seven years, O'Bannon bounced around the lesser international leagues. He played in Spain, Italy, Greece, Argentina, and Poland, where he once had to leave the court as the teams were pelted with snowballs. In 2002, at the age of 30 and coming off another knee surgery, O'Bannon decided to retire. He was trying out in Portland for a new league in China when he realized that no one there knew who he was.

O'Bannon moved with his wife and three kids to Las Vegas, where he completed his degree at UNLV and now sells cars for a living. As he told Bill Plaschke of the LA Times, "I always wanted to make a living as something other than a basketball player. I wanted my life to go into another direction. People see me and remember me, and I’m proud to tell them — ‘No, I don’t play. No, I don’t coach. Yes, I sell cars.'" Continue reading...