SAN FRANCISCO — Basketball star Ed O’Bannon and quarterback Sam Keller each earned most valuable player awards during their collegiate careers.
Now, years after playing their final games, they are pursuing what they consider a more significant collegiate legacy. They are attempting through federal lawsuits to force the NCAA to share its annual revenues with student-athletes.
“There are millions and millions of dollars being made off the sweat and grind of the student athlete,” O’Bannon said. “Student athletes see none of that other than their education.”
O’Bannon’s lawsuit seeks a share of the money the NCAA earns from licensing former players’ images in commercials, DVDs, video games and elsewhere. Keller’s claims are narrower and focused on the NCAA’s deal with Electronic Arts Inc., which makes basketball and football video games based on college players’ images.
They are making headway in court, racking up preliminary victories that have advanced their cause further than previous legal challenges to the NCAA.
The debate over compensating college players is almost as old as the NCAA, founded in 1906. Amateurs have long-been expected to compete for free and the love of sport – or at least the cost of a scholarship.
But the NCAA’s revenues have skyrocketed in recent years – it recently signed a $10.8 billion, 14-year television deal for basketball – and so have the demands of athletes to share in the money.
