Sports Thread #1 For 2/9/10: The NCAA Is Not A Happy Organization Today

A case that is unsurprisingly going by the ears of ESPN (unless Outside the lines picks up on it) is an important court decision that the cartel that is the NCAA feels very angry about.

It happened just yesterday

U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken denied the NCAA’s request Monday to dismiss a 2009 class-action lawsuit led by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon over the use of former players’ likenesses in everything from video games to memorabilia to television rebroadcasts.

And here are the possible ramifications

In green-lighting the case, O’Bannon’s attorneys can now begin the discovery process that may unlock how the business operates, which could have impact beyond this case. O’Bannon is one of several former athletes arguing that his one-year scholarship agreements never granted the NCAA use of his name and likeness in perpetuity.

The backdrop of this case is when O'Bannon noticed the NCAA had emulated his facial features and playing characteristics when watching a friend's kid play an NCAA college basketball video game.

“They literally played me on a video game,” O’Bannon told Yahoo! Sports last summer. “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.”

As some of you may know, college athletes don't receive any compensation from the NCAA profiting off of them. They rank in billions and billions as players sign off on the NCAA using them at every cost.

That may change with this decision, but the NCAA as always will fight tooth and nail to keep their "profiting off of players" scheme:

The NCAA released a statement: “The court’s … rulings at this preliminary stage of the cases do not diminish the N.C.A.A.’s confidence that we will ultimately prevail on all of the claims.” In its motion to dismiss, the Association defended both its business practices and that of partner Collegiate Licensing Company. It also sought to move jurisdiction from the historically activist Northern District of California to Indiana, where the organization’s headquarters are located.

Yes, move it to Indiana all you like NCAA.

Any day you're unhappy makes me feel the opposite.