This is, of course, bullshit. It's the same line of thinking that recently was destroyed by Redwood, California's Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that college athletes' likenesses have been improperly used for years in NCAA Football. EA Sports has made the case that its avatars possessing similar height, weight, build, skin tone, hair color, and jersey number to real-life counterparts was coincidental, or artistic licensing. Just like it's totally “coincidental” that No. 2 jerseys are A&M's top-seller.
Jay Bilas has been a steady guy not afraid to speak out against the NCAA's hypocrisies. (Some think he should be Big East commissioner. I wouldn't mind him acting as a czar of college sports.) And yesterday, the Young Jeezy enthusiast really took the organization to task, pointing out that if you search for an athlete's name on ShopNCAAsports.com, his jersey pops up. In other words, the NCAA knows it's profiting off Manziel's, Jadeveon Clowney's, and AJ McCarron's names. It's chickenshit enough to employ Google search strategies to squeeze every last penny out the players, too.
Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH, type in “Clowney” in upper right search box, and hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/pHUKGqoNuu
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013
Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH, type in “Manziel” in upper right search box, hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/N7KNvXIu24
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013
“”
Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH and type “Tajh Boyd” in upper right search box, then hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/0DF68wM0tW
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013
Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH and type “NCAA Executive Committee” in upper right search box, hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/7mwaNKO3TA
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013
The search button on the website has now been disabled. Almost assuredly because of Bilas' trolling. I believe some Jeezy would be appropriate right now:
I'm amazing (I'm amazing), yeah I'm all that (all that)
If I ain't on my grind then what you call that, what you call that
Victorious, yeah we warriors
We make history, strive for victory
“