NCAA Appears Powerless to Stop College Fantasy Football
USA Today ran an article on October 28 that analyzed the situation regarding the Knight Commission
Mike Herzlich, Boston College
and its stand against the use of college football players’ names in its games. The commission is specifically targeting the college fantasy football game marketed by CBS Sports.
Below are some excerpts from the USA Today article about college fantasy football.
The CBS site Sportsline.com this year introduced a fantasy football game that utilizes NCAA players and their statistics, after a court ruling over a similar issue involving major league baseball players was decided in favor of another fantasy league provider.
The NCAA asked CBS to cease implementation of the football league because of the association’s amateurism bylaws but has been reluctant to take legal action because of the court ruling in the baseball case.
CBS pays the NCAA $6.2 billion for the rights to the annual Division I basketball tournament. (I wonder if that has anything to do with it?)
Wally Renfro, senior advisor to NCAA president Myles Brand, said understood the sentiment but maintained the NCAA’s hands are tied.
“I think no matter how passionate you feel about this, I’ve yet to hear an argument that the association has the standing to take this on legally,” Renfro said. “The association does not own the publicity rights of the student-athletes, and that’s what this case is about. The association has taken on a number of cases in which it has looked at protecting the rights of the student-athlete. This is one in which the association has not been able to identify a standing for doing so.”
Although players themselves could likely try to take CBS or a similar fantasy game provider to court, Renfro said he’s not sure if anyone wants to.
“I’ve not heard an uproar or even a murmur (from players) that they take issue with this,” he said. “I’m not going to say they don’t care. I’m just unaware what their position is.”
Former Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel, addressing the commission on athletes rights and commercialization, said he’d like to see former players who are now college administrators or in the business world form an advocacy group for current and future players. One idea, he said, would be to explore the possibility of fantasy league providers setting aside some profits from the games to fund post-graduate scholarships for athletes.
