Sam Keller, a former quarterback for Arizona State University, is suing Electronic Arts and the NCAA over their licensing his image for their college sports game:
Electronic Arts Inc. and the National Collegiate Athletic Association were sued by a former college football player who claims athletes’ images are used in video games without their permission and in violation of NCAA rules.
Electronic Arts, the second-largest video-game publisher, circumvents the rules by allowing customers to upload player names directly into games and creating images that closely resemble student athletes to increase sales and NCAA royalties, according to the complaint filed by Sam Keller, a former quarterback for Arizona State University.
Normally, I fall on the side of rather open use of such things, and in the case of statistics for things like fantasy, I would do so anyway, but the fact that thee NCAA is a revolting organization does color my view here.
The equation here, at the top levels of sport anyway, is that the schools will pretend to provide an education, and in exchange the athletes will provide their services for free, and have no part in the billions that the schools rake in for the privilege.
When people complain about things like the lack of a playoff system in college football, they ignore the slave labor upon which this system is built.