Judge orders NCAA to pay athletes $60M in NCAA Football video game case

College football athletes are about to get paid — not to play, but for the NCAA using their likeness in NCAA Football video games.

After years of not seeing a penny for their likenesses being used in the million-dollar video game NCAA Football, college athletes are finally going to see some green. It took over 20 years, but a judge has ruled that you can’t use a person’s likeness and not pay them — even if you’re the NCAA.

According to CBS Sports, the NCAA will have to payback $60 million to players they used the likeness of in their video game series NCAA Football.

"At the moment, the maximum amount a player could receive from the settlements is about $7,200, Berman said. More than 20,000 claims have been made and the deadline for players to seek money has been extended to July 31, according to Berman."

That number could go up, and there could be more than just 20,000 claims filed by former players who want to be rightfully paid for their likeness being used in a video game that sold millions of copies. The NCAA Football video games from EA were the Madden of college football and still remains a popular game even though it went out of production in 2013.

The reason NCAA Football was discontinued is the kicker that tells you all you need to know about how crooked the NCAA is. Rather than pay then current and future players royalties for their likeness, the NCAA decided to just shit the game down. That’s how badly the organization doesn’t want to pay its athletes and share a slice of the cake.

A court ruling about a video game won’t fix the problem we have in the NCAA with players not being compensated for the money made from their likeness but it’s a big step we didn’t think would be taken. It’s a huge win for student-athletes and hopefully one step closer to making sure players who are profited off of see some of that return.

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