Sounds to me like someone was'nt good enough to make it to the pros. Its sad really. Most kids would be happy that they were immortalized in a video game.

Can't read the story due to the log-in, but I'll say this:

Whatever Keller's motives might be, what EA is doing is shady. What can be done with today's technology is a far cry from the sports games of old where a 8-bit sprite was named "Bo Shamuth." If EA were doing carbon copies of any other public figures, they'd have been sued a long time ago.

And the ick factor is increased by the NCAA, who, whether in ignorance or complicity, sign off and profit from the games while prohibiting those who likenesses are being used from seeing a cut.

Maybe future titles can go the game show route: institute a licensing fee in which the funds go to a charity of the athlete’s choice.

Oh, come on. It's not like anyone cares about Hockey in the US.

My brother played college football for 4 years, and I gladly bought NCAA football to have my brother's likeness in a game. My brother and the other players on the team were all quite accurate. There was little doubt in my mind who they were. I like that, and I know they did. I'm sure other college fans loved it as well. For smaller school players, its a badge of honor to be in the game. "If it's in the game, IT'S IN the Game" is their motto, after all.

I remember many sports games over the years, especially those from EA datamining past seasons, having tons of accurate stats, accurate info, and also rating players on what EA thought they could do. It helped me memorize a teams roster so I was more knowledgeable about the sport in general. On Sport Center, I remember a guy said he used EA's NHL to plan how he'd attack a certain goalie. I read an article a few years back that EA studies thousands of hours of sports films for their data, as well as additional media so that the licensed material is as accurate as possible. I am OK with the NCAA making some licensed money from the game because much of that money goes back to scholarships and facilities. Usually a big ticket sport subsidizes other programs. I know that it isn't always that altruistic though. What the NCAA has established for itself are some double standards for how it can use money and how athletes can use money. Star schools and star athletes are given a lot of leeway when it comes to money. The NCAA is a marketing juggernaut, and this system works wonders for them. Its not something I expect to change unless they revamp all of their polices from the ground up.

The tricky thing for the athletes are the NCAA rules. Most athletes can't have a job because in many cases it's too easy to give out a job that is considered an abuse of some sort (favoritism, job in name only, booster favors, etc). I knew enough athletes when I was in college myself to know some of them had more money than a jobless student should. Some sort of "profit share" back to the individual athletes is unlikely. They have many many many years of people to send money to. NCAA football is about 10x broader than the NFL so the number of players is immense, but I'd bet money that EA has all those players names still.

Sorry for the length of this, years worth of pent-up observations.

The NCAA is a joke. The whole reason they exist is to prevent certain schools from attracting talent based on financial rewards. Why not just introduce a salary cap/floor like the NFL? Does anyone really think that Div 1A is a level playing field? The only thing that the status quo does is line the univeristies' pockets at the expense of the players.

Woah! Is that sum sweet new Basketball game?

"Are college athletes getting ripped off by videogames?"

Surely the real question is whether college athletes - at least in the moneyspinngin sports - are getting ripped off by their colleges.

I scrutinized the NY Times pics that they printed in the paper. Thing is, the players don't actually LOOK LIKE their counterparts. The skin color (black, white), jersey number and color, and numeric stats (weight, etc) match up... is that enough to scream "likeness rights?" The jerseys and colors are licensed, the other traits are obviously meant to 'match up' but are comfortably 'not quite.' Note: all of the FACES are generic and identical. I think EA will have firm legal footing on this one.

this was great