EA Sports is out of the college football realm

[hive17]

EA Sports will stop producing college football game - ESPN

The courts found that the 1st Amendment is not cover for people taking the likenesses of players, turning a profit on those likenesses, and not compensating said players. I made this argument all along. Back when Buzz Aldrin sued Topps for the use of his likeness, I made the same argument. Just because something tries to hide behind labeling itself as "media", doesn't give them the right to turn a profit and screw over the subject.

Interestingly, EA does not have to admit that it did anything wrong. Also, the NCAA is still on the hook in this class-action; EA settling just means they bought themselves out of any further exposure.

 

[TBTwinsFan]

I wish EA would go away.

 

[notjomommasclint]

I read this today and all I could think of was mt dew junkies and stoners marching on the courts!

 

[predatorkj]

I'm not upset with EA by any means. They just capitalize on something people want and simply pay for the rights to do so. The NCAA is on a very high Ivory Tower and it's about to come crashing down when the athletes say no. They are simply making way too much money on these kids. Yes the situation is sticky but it's downright crazy that they can't at least give them a cut.

 

[AK11]

If you think college athletes should get paid, you're off your rocker and opening a pandora box that's not worth the chaos.

 

[predatorkj]

If you think college athletes should get paid, you're off your rocker and opening a pandora box that's not worth the chaos.

Fine. Only sell tickets to the games and concessions at the games. No merchandise with any numbers on the jersey, no pictures of the players for sale, no money made from use of likeness on a video game, no team luncheons to get boosters to pay excess amounts of cash to sit with players, no autograph signings or autographed memorabilia of any kind...free or otherwise. You don't want to pay the players anything, then just charge for the games themselves and that's it. Because honestly, when I go into a Walmart or Target or any spotting goods store and see A&M jerseys or t-shirts with Manziel's number on them, I am reminded of how lopsided this crap is. So provide the players with whatever education they can get, and just charge people to go to the games. This being a pandora's box is not enough of an excuse to keep doing the wrong thing.

I'm still torn on the athletes being able to take whatever classes they want, especially after the OSU story broke. I am not sure they all can do that but obviously there are some who do. I'm also of the mind that it's fair if you get a portion of whatever your sport makes. So if you want to go to a D1 school and play volleyball when you know it produces very little if any revenue, it's about as fair as it can be.

 

[predatorkj]

In essence, do not sit back and say athletes should not be paid because it would be too much of a mess. That's a bad excuse.

 

[t3dudek]

If you think college athletes should get paid, you're off your rocker and opening a pandora box that's not worth the chaos.

If your reasoning is because they get a free scholarship. Look at Doctors they are in essence recruited to certain universities. Get free tuition and also a set amount of money a month. I think my brother was given 2200 dollars a month from Penn State and From Indiana when he graduated. Atleast give the kids money. My Brother always said that the 2200 a month on top of his scholarship was so that he didnt have to work while attending college and doing lab work. So in essence shouldnt whats fair be fair. Give the kids money they are already profiting from you.

 

[Benson]

D1 football and men's basketball some how need to be separated from the rest of college athletics. Paying the tennis team at Maryland or the track team at Bradley is clearly absurd. I think at most schools football and basketball support the rest of the sports. If you separate those two and say football money goes to football and basketball money goes to basketball, where does that leave the rest of the sports?

One thing to remember on all those thousands of athletes on scholarship, for the schools themselves those are not free rides, the athletic department, partially through NCAA revenues, pays the school for tuition, room and board for those athletes.

I agree the players from the power conferences in football and basketball should get something, but I have no clue how you do it and not have all the other smaller sports want to get paid as well.

 

[AK11]

I am talking the escalation of money that would happen if college athletes started getting paid. Just like pro athletes, every year, a better recruit would ask for more and the rich schools would pay and the others could not. Also, if we're to starting paying athletes, then the students who go for academic reasons should get paid as well. Smart people deserve a cut as the school gets praise for the brainy kids as well. Also, the idea of paying just some of the sports is another unfair practice that does not solve anything. If you pay athletes, everyone will want money, whether it's swimming or football. Trying to regulate how much is allowed to go to college athletes without breaking universities' banks would be the can of worms here.

 

[predatorkj]

Ok, I do not for the life of me understand why people feel a sport that generates no money, and in many cases actually loses money and lives off the welfare of the football/basketball programs, deserves any kind of cut for it's players. That's like me choosing to work a really low paying job that I know is low paying, applying for and living on welfare, and then if the people who pay for my welfare get a job promotion or more money, me saying my welfare checks should be larger. That's just unfathomably stupid. So as far as all the sports being paid, you can throw that out the window and tell them if they want to earn money based on playing sports in college, play a sport that earns money. They cannot expect anything more than that and should be happy that the other sports cover their operating costs to begin with. The football players and the basketball players are earning their school a lot of money. The badmitten team is not.

As far as the athletic department paying for the tuitions, I'm not sure why that even goes on. The school should be able to just chalk it up as an investment on a product they make millions of dollars on.

As far as escalation, not gonna be possible. You get paid a percentage of the programs earnings. You can't ask for something that you're not helping to create. Further more, you can't ask for even more money than you helped create either. And as far as the athletes picking one school over another because the payout is bigger, I'm not talking major amounts of money here people! It should never get so far offline that a kid says he's going to Alabama because the payout is $75,000 a year while Arkansas only pays out $25,000. A given percentage can mediate it to where the discrepancy won't be so big. But...even if this was the case and you have some kids wanting to go to certain schools over others based on money, it already goes on in the manner of prestige and exposure. Which would you rather go to if you had the choice? The bigger and better school in that particular sport. Education is most likely on the back burner anyhow but even then, unless we are talking Ivy League schools, you'll get a decent education at most major universities. So my point is this already goes on right now without pay and even if pay is given, a team only has so many spots on it. Not everyone can go to Bama or UT or USC or Georgia or Clemson. Most of the time it comes down to the best school you got an offer from. Money or no money, you're most likely going anyways.


About the only, and I mean only, argument that holds any water is the amount a scholarship is really worth to an athlete due to schedule conflicts and the like. As was brought up in another thread, it is in some cases possible for the athlete to excel and choose any classes they want. But I think there are also issues with it too so to me, that's a debatable subject. The rest of this is just people trying to needlessly throw a roadblock in where it doesn't belong.

 

[Benson]

Predatorkj, while I agree that the other sports shouldn't get paid, once you pay 80 kids on football scholarship and the 12 on basketball, a little thing called Title IX is going to say you better be paying 92 female athletes as well. That's where I really see it getting muddy as far as ever paying college players.

As far as schools chalking up the cost of athletic scholarships, very few things are ever really free. All those kids on academic scholarships...some one some where is paying the tuition, whether it be foundations or general scholarship funds. That's what those wonderful associations that harass you for money after you graduate are for

 

[predatorkj]

Predatorkj, while I agree that the other sports shouldn't get paid, once you pay 80 kids on football scholarship and the 12 on basketball, a little thing called Title IX is going to say you better be paying 92 female athletes as well. That's where I really see it getting muddy as far as ever paying college players.

As far as schools chalking up the cost of athletic scholarships, very few things are ever really free. All those kids on academic scholarships...some one some where is paying the tuition, whether it be foundations or general scholarship funds. That's what those wonderful associations that harass you for money after you graduate are for

Which is dumb because they could use the money made from the program to cover tuition.

As for title 9, while I think it's great females have the opportunity to play sports, if they don't earn, they don't get paid. How can it get any fairer? Besides, the costs of their sports have to be covered by the basketball or football team as it is for the most part. I like title 9 as it gives them the chance to play but it should not enter into this.