The NCAA guide on how to unfairly profit from athletes

My average year has three highlights – my first day of school, my last day of school and the release of EA Sports NCAA Football.

This year was no different. However, something I read made me think about this game in a new light.

Sam Keller, a former quarterback from Arizona State and Nebraska, filed a class-action lawsuit against EA Sports and the NCAA in May 2009.

The lawsuit states that EA Sports NCAA Football game uses likenesses of college athletes for profit without providing compensation for the players used in the game.

At a first glance, I dismissed this filing as a whiny ex-football player looking for a quick buck and 15 more minutes of fame since he wasted his first 15 on being a terribly forgettable quarterback for two bad teams.

However, at a deeper level, Keller makes a very compelling case that does warrant a closer look.

Every year, the NCAA Football game provides a complete roster for every team in the FBS.

These rosters do not have names, but they provide a position and a jersey number.

Each player has a unique physical appearance with different accessories on their uniforms. Also, each player has a rating, which is a numerical value on how good a player is on the game.

Looking at all of these things in conjunction, there is no doubt which player you are dealing with on each roster. HB #7 for West Virginia is obviously Noel Devine.

On top of all that, the past few years EA Sports has integrated a roster sharing system on Xbox Live, which allows users to make named rosters and then allow other people to download them.

As a result, every year I have a full-named roster.

The lawsuit filed against the NCAA claims the institution that is supposed to protect the student-athletes made a deal with EA Sports while not properly addressing the issue of likenesses.

This is a serious claim that brings the entire purpose of the NCAA under a cloud of doubt. How can an institution that is charged with the protection of student-athletes unfairly profit from them without being in major violation of its mission?

Every year, the NCAA makes more than $500 million from its TV contracts alone, and only 60 percent of that is given back to the institutions for student-athletes.

Much of that money comes from the more than 2 million copies of the NCAA Football game.

It seems the NCAA really has very little to do with the protection of the student-athletes that it absurdly profits from.

The NCAA Football game sells for only one reason – the players on the game are representations of the actual players on the field. With that said, it's only fair that people who make this game popular should get some piece of the profits.

The hypocrisy of the NCAA is so bold that it's stunning. They post a rule book so big and confusing that Johnny Cochran and F. Lee Bailey couldn't decipher it, yet they resort to shady actions in order to secure profits from a gaming company.

At the end of the day, the NCAA is nothing more than another organization that got too big to effectively serve its purpose, and that is an absolute travesty.

College sports are one of the purest things in our society. They are about a spirit and a passion that is rarely stirred in our day-to-day lives. The NCAA has a noble purpose, to protect the reputation of these sports and keep them pure from outside corruption.

If you allow this game to be made solely on the images of players, then you must pay them at least something in order for there to be any shred of justice in this deal.

Even though I agree with Sam Keller and his lawsuit, the consequences of this lawsuit will have a very depressing outcome for me and all the other fans of the NCAA Football franchise.

Here is my bold prediction on how this mess will end.

Sam Keller will win his lawsuit in our court system. It will be stated that if players' likenesses are to be used, they must be compensated.

The NCAA will decide in its infinite wisdom that giving players any cut of the profits of the game is in some violation found on page 4,153 of their rules manual and not allow likenesses of players to be used.

EA Sports will attempt to make a game with completely random rosters, and roughly 52 people buy it. The franchise decides that it is no longer making the game.

Then after I graduate from college, I will have nothing to look forward to.