Is the NCAA in Fantasy Land?
July 31st, 2008 - by The NCAA has always tried to walk the fine line between marketing their sporting events while not violating their amateurism principles. That line will again be tested thanks in part to a recent Supreme Court decision that essentially ruled that an entity does not own the rights to statistics and names that are in the public domain. The ruling spurred CBSSports.com to change their College Football Fantasy League’s naming of players. For the first time they will use the actual players names instead of the previous generic tags. This season FLORIDA QB will be replaced with more recognizable Tim Tebow. CBS believes this will be a huge boost to its Fantasy Sports Division.
NCAA spokesman, Bob Williams, confirmed that they had sent a letter to CBS informing them that their bylaws were being violated but given the added exposure it could bring to the player they would not stand in their way.
“We are concerned with protecting the amateur status of the student athlete,” Mr. Williams says, but conceded that their bylaws were created in a era “before new media.” do not properly address a situation like this. Still, he warned that the NCAA will be watching closely.
This seems to open Pandora’s box for the NCAA. They don’t want to see their athletes exploited for profit, but likely don’t have any legal ground to stand on. They have been backed into a corner and it seems the only solution is to work with CBS for now, but what will happen when other companies jump on the bandwagon?
July 31st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121751139728400789.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Update from the Wall Street Journal