moneyballThe NCAA is staring down yet another potentially landmark case this summer in the arena of athlete compensation. And this one could deal the Association the most devastating blow of them all.
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports, as he has been known to do in recent years, was first with the story of former UCLA hoops star Ed O’Bannon and a couple of legal heavyweights filing a federal case against the NCAA.
O’Bannon was inspired to act much in the same way former Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller and former Cal and Rutgers QBs Troy Taylor and Ryan Hart were: By watching the NCAA and companies like EA Sports profit off their likenesses in wildly popular video games.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell has been optimistic on Keller’s chances, at one point point arguing: “I’ve seen many lawsuits brought about by student athletes in my day and this is probably the best case I have ever seen constructed.”

After Tuesday’s news, that case may slide to a close second as O’Bannon has hooked up with a team known to sling a legal sledgehammer with ease.

He’s represented by two of the nation’s most high-powered law firms – including one that secured reparations for Holocaust survivors from Swiss banks.
Hausfeld LLC has recovered billions in worldwide class action suits ranging from reparations from price fixing cartels to benefactors of slave labor.
His taking of the case along with Boies, Schiller & Flexner, which has been involved in mega-cases such as United States v. Microsoft and Bush v. Gore, suggests that the lawyers believe there is a great deal of punitive money available.

O’Bannon (especially), Keller and perhaps even Taylor and Hart all stand a good chance of success in these matters as they fall under the category of former and not current players. Similarly, more than 2,000 retired NFL players were granted $26.25 million in a settlement last year regarding their likenesses being portrayed in the Madden video game series.

Arguments of preserving athletes’ amateurism dissipate once those athletes graduate and are released from their scholarships and obligations to their institutions. There’s no way something big doesn’t come out of one or more of these cases. And as Wetzel illustrates in must-read fashion, the NCAA is now pitted against the heavyweights in O’Bannon and Co. capabable of a stinging blow.

At stake, the article states, is “a share of the estimated $4 billion market for collegiate licensed merchandise.” The NCAA, should it lose, would be forced to pay a “substantial penalty” and could even be forced to share its revenue stream with former players.

You can bet many former (and current) players will be paying attention to these cases. You can also take to the bank the fact that there will be a notable ripple effect in light of the cases’ outcomes.