MACHIAVELLI
Chairman/C.E.O.
It's that time of year again when NCAA officials have a hard time justifying that college sports is the last bastion of amateurism. The organization's contract with CBS for March Madness will once again yield more than $500 million, providing the lion's share of the annual NCAA budget and scholarships for its member institutions.
The NCAA is soon expected to darken the fine line between selling college sports and exploiting its athletes. That's because last month the agents and amateurism subcommittee asked the cabinet to sponsor legislation that would prohibit an institution, conference or the NCAA from using the name or likeness of an individual student-athlete on retail products such as jerseys and video games. If the proposal is advanced by the Division I Management Council in July, it would come up for a final vote next April.
Schools currently sell jerseys of specific athletes by featuring their numbers only, as the NCAA has maintained that the numbers are technically interchangeable and are property of the school. In video games, athletes appear at their appropriate positions in college football and basketball games but are known only by number and don't include names or the look of the athletes.
"We draw the line at facial features or names on jerseys," NCAA president Myles Brand said recently.
Last June, the NCAA met with a select group of athletes, including Notre Dame guard Chris Thomas. At the meeting, Thomas reportedly said that he enjoyed seeing his number jersey around campus and didn't resent that he didn't receive money for it.
But that might not be the opinion of many star student-athletes whose jerseys have been sold at the school bookstore. Former Michigan State guard Mateen Cleaves and former Syracuse guard Carmelo Anthony told ESPN.com last year that they believe they should have received a cut from their jersey sales.
Video game makers, which have previously agreed not to use names, have a greater issue than the jersey manufacturers since the piece of legislation will prohibit them from using names and facial features of players in the future. Because they can't do so, their games are less realistic than games in other professional sports. In recent years, producers of games have done all they can to get closer by including mascots and cheerleaders and even signing deals with college coaches.
"We talk to these athletes and they are all playing our game," said Chip Lange, vice president of marketing for EA Sports. "They want to be featured in the game. That's part of the fun factor of being a successful athlete. But the NCAA is looking at it from a standpoint of protecting the image or status of their athletes and that's something that they hold as one of their pillars."
"I suppose the NCAA doesn't want to appear like they are rocking the boat and do anything more than the jersey numbers, but the bottom line is that by selling jerseys with specific numbers, they've already crossed that line," said NCAA critic Ramogi Huma, who is the chairman of the Collegiate Athletes Coalition, which hopes to unionize current athletes. "The future use of players' names on jerseys and likenesses in video games should not be banned. It's just that athletes should get paid for it. It's not pay-for-play. It's pay-for-fame."
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbusiness/news/story?id=2014075
The NCAA is soon expected to darken the fine line between selling college sports and exploiting its athletes. That's because last month the agents and amateurism subcommittee asked the cabinet to sponsor legislation that would prohibit an institution, conference or the NCAA from using the name or likeness of an individual student-athlete on retail products such as jerseys and video games. If the proposal is advanced by the Division I Management Council in July, it would come up for a final vote next April.
Schools currently sell jerseys of specific athletes by featuring their numbers only, as the NCAA has maintained that the numbers are technically interchangeable and are property of the school. In video games, athletes appear at their appropriate positions in college football and basketball games but are known only by number and don't include names or the look of the athletes.
"We draw the line at facial features or names on jerseys," NCAA president Myles Brand said recently.
Last June, the NCAA met with a select group of athletes, including Notre Dame guard Chris Thomas. At the meeting, Thomas reportedly said that he enjoyed seeing his number jersey around campus and didn't resent that he didn't receive money for it.
But that might not be the opinion of many star student-athletes whose jerseys have been sold at the school bookstore. Former Michigan State guard Mateen Cleaves and former Syracuse guard Carmelo Anthony told ESPN.com last year that they believe they should have received a cut from their jersey sales.
Video game makers, which have previously agreed not to use names, have a greater issue than the jersey manufacturers since the piece of legislation will prohibit them from using names and facial features of players in the future. Because they can't do so, their games are less realistic than games in other professional sports. In recent years, producers of games have done all they can to get closer by including mascots and cheerleaders and even signing deals with college coaches.
"We talk to these athletes and they are all playing our game," said Chip Lange, vice president of marketing for EA Sports. "They want to be featured in the game. That's part of the fun factor of being a successful athlete. But the NCAA is looking at it from a standpoint of protecting the image or status of their athletes and that's something that they hold as one of their pillars."
"I suppose the NCAA doesn't want to appear like they are rocking the boat and do anything more than the jersey numbers, but the bottom line is that by selling jerseys with specific numbers, they've already crossed that line," said NCAA critic Ramogi Huma, who is the chairman of the Collegiate Athletes Coalition, which hopes to unionize current athletes. "The future use of players' names on jerseys and likenesses in video games should not be banned. It's just that athletes should get paid for it. It's not pay-for-play. It's pay-for-fame."
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbusiness/news/story?id=2014075
