Former Ohio State football player and current NFL on Fox analyst Chris Spielman filed a lawsuit which has the same potential to disrupt the business of college football as Spielman displayed against opposing running games during his playing years.
The Chris Spielman lawsuit filed on Friday against IMG Marketing and Ohio State doesn’t appear to be a money-grab, but it does carry with it a lot of possibilities to change how college football programs market themselves going forward.
Essentially, this is the Jah Reid UCF lawsuit on steroids. Ohio State is a much more prolific college football program than the Golden Knights, Spielman is more recognizable than Reid, and then there’s the matter of the scope of the suit.
Like Reid, Spielman is challenging his alma mater’s ability to use his image, likeness and name in its marketing long after he stopped making tackles for the Buckeyes without either compensating him for such use or even seeking, much less obtaining, his permission to do so. The difference is that Spielman filed the case not only on his own behalf but on the behalf of 63 other former Buckeye football players similarly featured in the team’s signage at Ohio Stadium.
While Michael McCann stresses that this lawsuit isn’t officially a class-action affair just yet, and the likelihood of it receiving such designation isn’t certain, that potential demands that Ohio State takes the suit seriously. There’s another fact that also adds a degree of brevity to the situation.
McCann also points out that the case was filed in federal court in Ohio, which doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the United States 9th District Court of Appeals. That’s important because some of the questions regarding the legality of colleges using former player identities without compensation were already answered by that court in O’Bannon v. NCAA. As Ohio is not in the 9th’s area of jurisdiction, Ohio State is not currently bound to abide by the ruling. This lawsuit could change that for not only Ohio State, but all the schools within the 6th federal district. That would include schools like Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.
If the suit is granted class-action status and reaches its desired end, that would mean that not only would Ohio State have to pay damages to the plaintiffs, but perhaps alter its student-athlete agreement as well. It’s probable that the Big Ten and NCAA would approve adding a clause that would grant the university rights to use a player’s image, likeness and name in perpetuity. Something like that seems to be the real desired end of this suit.
Spielman has already stated that he will donate any funds received from the suit to the Ohio State athletics department. Rob Oller of the Columbus Dispatch writes that his sources have told him that Ohio State made a settlement offer of $230,000 to Spielman, but he turned it down. Spielman is only seeking $75,000 between the 64 plaintiffs in the suit’s filing. It truly seems that this suit isn’t looking for dollars, but rather to force Ohio State to come to the bargaining table.
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If the suit’s potential class-action status is approved and other conditions look favorable, expect Ohio State to ramp up its efforts to avoid an actual trial by reaching a settlement with Spielman and the other plaintiffs. It may be too late for that, however. Spielman is looking to affect change, not collect change.