In July of 2009, Ed O’Bannon filed this lawsuit. Five years later, we will finally get to see the drama play out in the courtroom. Jon Soloman of CBS Sports does a fantastic job of breaking everything down here and if you are still thirsting for more check out USA Today’s coverage.
EA Sports has settled their part of the lawsuit for $40 million. What will this cost the NCAA? More importantly, how will it affect college athletes going forward?
Here’s what O’Bannon told CNN back in January…
I want players to get what they deserve. I want to right a wrong, I want the game to change. I want the way the NCAA does business — I want that to change.
The big question coming out of this trial, and of course all of the appeals afterwards, is how will the NCAA fundamentally change the way they do business and how will it affect big and small schools going forward? Will this case set off a splinter reaction which will cause the “Big 5” conferences to form a league of their own? Win or lose, I think it’s clear that the NCAA is finally “getting it” and that change will happen. How big of a change, of course, will depend on the verdict.
While this lawsuit is finally seeing it’s day in court, there won’t be a quick verdict and even after the verdict we may have to wait years for the “process” to work. One thing is for sure, change is afoot we just don’t know how big the change will be.
