This has sort of flown under everyone's radar. I see and hear things about it occasionally but when you really sit down and think about the implications if O'Bannon wins this suit. Kiss college sports as we know it goodbye. Look at some of the comparisons at the bottom.
Jon Solomon | jsolomon@al.com By Jon Solomon | jsolomon@al.com
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on February 26, 2014 at 1:50 PM, updated February 27, 2014 at 9:43 AM
How much money a college athlete could make if the Ed O'Bannon antitrust lawsuit succeeds remains an unanswered question. But documents unsealed in the case today provide at least one proposed model and shed insight into how pro leagues split revenue.
O'Bannon economic expert Daniel Rascher estimated that a football player on Alabama's 2010 team would have received $47,330 from live broadcasting revenue that year and about $190,000 over four years. By contrast, a football player at USC would have received about $27,651 and roughly $110,000 over four years.
Meanwhile, the NBA and NHL split licensing revenue evenly between the league and players, and the NFL provides players with roughly one-third, according to one document. The O'Bannon plaintiffs are attempting to remove restrictions against paying college athletes based on their name, image and likeness.
The NBA had designated its licensing details confidential, but U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled the NBA had not adequately explained how disclosing the information would impact future negotiations with the players' union. The details were part of a report by O'Bannon economic expert Roger Noll, who has argued for a 50-50 split of licensing revenue for college athletes, including TV money.
The 2011 NBA collective bargaining agreement calls for a 50-50 split of all licensing revenue. Noll's report listed 41 product license agreements from the NBA Players Association. Details about the companies with NBA licensing agreements are part of his report except for the length of contract and financial terms, which are redacted.
Noll wrote that the 2012 NFL collective bargaining agreement sets different "fractional splits" for different types of revenue, "but the players' fraction of broadcast revenue is 55 percent." The NHL's most recent collective bargaining agreement produced a 50-50 split of revenue, the report said.
"All of the examples above are a form of group agreement about sharing revenues when two types of parties collaborate to create a licensed product," Noll wrote. "The standard result is an even split of revenue. The implication for this litigation is that in the absence of NCAA restrictions, student-athletes also would receive a 50 percent, not zero percent, of licensing income."
The NCAA says group licensing in pro sports leagues does not include an athlete's name, image and likeness.
At a summary judgment hearing last week, O'Bannon attorney Michael Hausfeld faced some difficult questions from Wilken about whether the plaintiffs wanted college players to receive licensing payments during their college careers or have money put aside into a trust fund for after they leave. Hausfeld ultimately said he would be fine with an injunction allowing money to be put aside in a fund.
"I'm not issuing any injunctions until there's a finding of liability," Wilken said at the hearing. "And it probably wouldn't be a question of compromising, it would be a question of what had been shown to be a violation. So if you want to compromise, I'm all for it. And we'll talk about that later, but I wouldn't be compromising."
Other unsealed documents today reflected how much money college athletes could receive from licensing under damages calculations from Rascher. Some examples that were cited:
* A Michigan State men's basketball player in 2010-11 would have received about $275,675 that year from live broadcasting, compared to $191,512 from a UCLA player.
* Southern Miss football player DeAndre Brown would have earned $2,739 for 2008 yet could have made much more at nearby schools Ole Miss ($20,098) and Mississippi State ($22,395).
* Back in 2007, Utah defensive end James Aiono would have earned $1,886 a year at Utah, $3,336 at Utah State, and over $21,000 at Colorado.
* Memphis basketball player Jelan Kendrick would have been in line to receive $76,416 at Memphis in 2010, but over $219,000 at Tennessee.
* Gonzaga basketball star Austin Daye would have gotten $22,640 from Gonzaga in 2007, yet could have earned much more at nearby Washington ($150,058) and Washington State ($136,390).
The examples came from a report by NCAA expert Daniel Rubinfeld in an attempt to show competitive balance issues for teams if players were allowed to be paid.
Wilken, the judge in the case, said last week she has a "problem" with the NCAA's procompetitive arguments involving competitive balance, amateurism and integrating athletics with education. Wilken said the case will move forward to a trial starting June 9 if there is no settlement.
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