It's an interesting situation. In a way, it's somewhat analogous to the Articles of Confederation and Constitutional US, certainly post-Civil War.
For most leagues that EA works with, there's a centralized, dominant center of control for licensing. All NBA teams wear Adidas crap; all NFL teams wear, I think, Nike now after going with Reebok for awhile. The NFL and NBA, etc can license its players names and images -- a right I assume is granted the franchise in every contract and which is in turn granted to the NBA or which is granted the league via collective bargaining. Either way, the leagues have it.
The NCAA sort of just oversees a collection of autonomous leagues and Universities. There's little doubt, IMO, that the University could obtain the rights at issue as part of the scholarship grant. Plenty of consideration flowing both ways. But, I don't think there's any specific provision in the scholarship that grants the NCAA rights. Moreover, I'm not sure they could -- the contract isn't between the NCAA and the Student-Athlete, it's between the student-athlete and the University. And there's a lot of steps between the University have any such rights and the NCAA.
For most leagues that EA works with, there's a centralized, dominant center of control for licensing. All NBA teams wear Adidas crap; all NFL teams wear, I think, Nike now after going with Reebok for awhile. The NFL and NBA, etc can license its players names and images -- a right I assume is granted the franchise in every contract and which is in turn granted to the NBA or which is granted the league via collective bargaining. Either way, the leagues have it.
The NCAA sort of just oversees a collection of autonomous leagues and Universities. There's little doubt, IMO, that the University could obtain the rights at issue as part of the scholarship grant. Plenty of consideration flowing both ways. But, I don't think there's any specific provision in the scholarship that grants the NCAA rights. Moreover, I'm not sure they could -- the contract isn't between the NCAA and the Student-Athlete, it's between the student-athlete and the University. And there's a lot of steps between the University have any such rights and the NCAA.
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