Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA: UPDATE: O'Bannon wins, but NCAA may not suffer that much

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

I just read SI today about the Mizzou guy who tweeted about why can't he afford to buy a video game that he's actually in. Was a good story. And again renewed my boner that this could indeed be the end of the NCAA.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

And then he walked next door and didn't have $2 for fish sticks ...

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

I was surprised to read (in that SI story, I think) that Moody's had recently downgraded the NCAA's ratings outlook (as distinct from its current credit rating) to negative ... Moody's is saying that now its long-range view of the NCAA's creditworthiness is pessimistic.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

You know how I know this is a big story?

The national columnists aren't touching it.

It is so much easier to write how Manziel needs to grow up or sober up or something or the SEC media daze.

Writing about this is hard. Much easier to follow the path of least resistance.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

Awesome.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

Are there National Columnists who are not employed by a partner of the NCAA?

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

Ahem.

Dan Wetzel, Andy Staples and plenty of others, too.

Oh, and despite ESPN's various rights deals, Tom Farrey of OTL has been doing good work as well.

I'm the first person to see conspiracies and hidden, follow-the-money agendas, but in this case, I don't think there are any. It's probably more like brain trauma and football: a lot of writers and fans simply aren't particularly interested, it's not why they engage with sports in the first place.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

Or the story broke last night, while a lot of them were on the road home from Hoover.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

I took Jay to mean the story in the larger sense -- the entire lawsuit, not just the latest news-break. And I think he's right, you will not find a lot of columnists writing about this. It's a very complex case, so it certainly wouldn't be easy to write about.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

I suspect they'll be writing about it if the NCAA loses.

It'll be like steroids. They'll ignore it until all hell breaks loose, then throw out a bunch of columns about how the world is coming to an end.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

I also imagine that national sports writers might not be entirely hip about why the NCAA ending its license on video games is such a huge deal. While stuff like Curt Schilling's company imploding has put a bit of a spotlight on how big business games are now, I'm not sure if most people realize that the video game / gaming industry (non-casino) might be twice that of movies, depending on what estimate you look at. A quick Google and Wikipedia search estimated the movie industry at about $35B, and video games at $65B. I realize you can slice both of them a lot of different ways, but I bet most people would think movies were the leader far and away.

 

Re: Ed O'Bannon suing NCAA

I've followed the case and seen lots of national writers weigh in. Some are unusually biased -- they hate the NCAA with a zeal only the Tea Party can find for Obama -- but there's been a lot of writing on it.

I still think, in the very longest run, the NCAA either settles or takes the case all the way to the Supreme Court, where I think the NCAA ultimately wins. The argument I make if I'm the NCAA is: If you suddenly reward college athletes who signed away their rights with the money they voluntarily relinquished, you're potentially declaring open season on a whole variety of contracts. Do high school athletes now get part of the gate on Friday night? Do grad students teaching undergrad courses at Duke suddenly get a chunk of the tuition money? I'm not sure where it stops. It's a weird intersection between not-for-profit ideals (the trading of service for training) and the purest, most blind free market principles.