CBSSports.com last month announced that it has launched an all-new version of its College Fantasy Football game, “continuing to be the only major fantasy sports service provider with a collegiate fantasy football game.”
CBSSports.com originally released the game in 2005. But the controversy this year is that for the first time, it will use real, individual player names rather than listing school and position, such as “FLORIDA QB” or “MICHIGAN RB”.
“As the leader in the fantasy sports business, we’re constantly looking for ways to distinguish our service from the competition,” said Jason Kint, senior vice president and general manager, in a statement. “We believe combining fantasy sports and college football will give fans and alumni yet another reason to get involved in the sport, increasing the popularity of college football much in the same way fantasy sports has affected professional football.”
CBSSports.com is proceeding following the resolution of a lawsuit filed by the Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which had attempted to claim ownership of statistics generated by baseball players during games. MLB lost the case and the U.S. Supreme Court in June refused to hear its appeal.
CBSSports.com is the biggest organization charging forward, several other entities have either added college football-related fantasy information to their magazines and Web sites or plan to starting this season, according to a statement released by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA).
“The CDM legal case opens the door to building fantasy games without licensing issues, which may make it possible for larger companies to operate college fantasy football leagues with player names,” said Peter Schoenke, president of Rotowire, in the FSWA statement.
While this might be true, the NCAA is up in arms. The organization sent a letter to CBS Sports on behalf of its student athletes, “explaining that the new version of fantasy college football violates an eligibility bylaw,””according to the Minnesota Daily, the campus newspaper at the University of Minnesota.
The bylaw, according to the Daily, states that a student-athlete may lose eligibility if their name is used in conjunction with a fantasy sports operation. The bylaw also requires that the institution would have to contact the fantasy sports company to have the name and likeness removed.
“We are not pleased and concerned with the direction [fantasy sports] have taken,” NCAA President Myles Brand said in a conference call, according to the Daily.
Brand added that the association plans to continue to promote its current “amateurism” model.
JT Bruett, compliance director for University of Minnesota athletics, told the Daily the college has sent cease and desist letters in the past and likely will do so again in this case.
In reality, however, the University and the NCAA may not have a leg to stand on. The ruling in the court case filed by MLB Advanced Media against CDM Fantasy Sports Corp. essentially determined that an entity does not own the rights to statistics and names that are in the public domain, according to the Wall Street Journal.
That has allowed for other fantasy companies to use names and statistics without fear of retribution from entities such as Major League Baseball or the National Football League.
CBSSports.com’s Kint told the Wall Street Journal that the ruling and the demand for fantasy sports – more than 25 million people play fantasy sports every year, according to the paper, made this a good time to release the new product.
And NCAA spokesman Bob Williams told the Journal that while the association is “concerned with protecting the amateur status of the student athlete,” he also believes the bylaws, which were enacted “before new media” do not properly address a situation like this.
Paul Charchian, former owner of Fanball.com and now founder of leaguesafe.com, said in an email to Zoneblitz.com that the court case “makes it clear that the names can be used, without any regard to the NCAA’s wishes.”
He also suggested that if the NCAA tries to enforce its eligibility penalties based on the creation of a fantasy game by a third-party “the NCAA will be sued into the ground,” he said. “The player certainly didn’t do anything wrong.”
There’s a heckuva’n appetite for fantasy sports. There’s also a tremendous population of people that prefer the college game to the pro game. CBS Sports could be jumping into a gold mine. In the long run, if the interest derived from CBS Sports’ product matches the demand fantasy sports has brought to the NFL, and to a somewhat lesser extent Major League Baseball, from people who otherwise might not be interested in the game, this could end up being a positive for all involved parties.
The NCAA, however, is a powerful and strong-willed organization. If they really choose to push this – and if they legally can’t do so on the basis of its bylaws – one might guess that they could instead choose to punish the network when it comes to television contract negotiations. This is an issue that is not likely to go away for quite some time.
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If the NCAA sued, it would be like a company suing TV stations for running stock tickers. Nobody owns statistics. They just ARE.
Right. I think the MLB lawsuit established that the statistics “just are.” I agree with you on that. I was saying that the NCAA could GET sued if it tried to enforce its eligibility rules on players whose names are displayed in fantasy games.
Where the NCAA wields power is in its ability to dole out TV contracts – I could see the association at least trying to minimize or eliminate CBS from its future college football contracts if CBS follows through with its plans.
But if ESPN and Fox and other fantasy companies follow through I think any leverage the NCAA might have is weakened. Who knows. Interesting times as far as this issue goes.
Don’t the conferences and schools have more power on the tv contracts than the NCAA does, in general?
That’s a good point. I’m not sure about that. Though even if you are right I think the NCAA could probably lean on the conferences, if it really wanted to.
Right now CBS has the SEC, which by most accounts is the top college football conference year in and year out.
Even that said, though, there are limited networks for a lotta college teams. Maybe there’s less leverage there for the NCAA than I was originally thinking.
The NCAA could lean on a renegade conference or a few schools, but if most of the schools decide they just don’t care, then I think the NCAA is stuck. The schools won’t sit for having their athletes suspended over a bunch of nonsense.
Excellent Web link, Sir Whoopass. I haven’t seen that photo before.
Of course, the big thing in all of this is probably that the NCAA just wants to figure out how THEY can make money with Fantasy Football.
Which, if they were smart and looked at the NFL, they’d realize all they have to do is stop complaining about things like CBSSportsline, and watch college football grow to new heights as more and more people play college fantasy football.