If the NCAA was hoping to distance itself from the notion that it doesn’t profit off the names of student-athletes, the organization certainly wasn’t handed any favors on Tuesday.
Less than a week after a the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in northern California rejected an appeal by video game company Electronic Arts to extricate itself as a codefendant in a class action lawsuit which alleged that the company, along with the NCAA and Collegiate Licensing Company, used the likenesses of players without permission, the NCAA’s deteriorating image took another hit – this time on social media.
Around midday Tuesday, Jay Bilas, an ESPN college basketball analyst who has been outspoken in his contempt for the organization, visited the official NCAA online shop and typed in the name of Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel in the search bar. What showed up was several Texas A&M jerseys – all adorned with Manziel’s No. 2.
Bilas posted a screenshot on Twitter and did the same with Alabama's A.J. McCarron, Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater, Clemson's Tajh Boyd and a handful of other players before the NCAA conveniently disabled the website’s search function.
With the cat out of the bag, I visited the site and saw that the NCAA offers several Idaho football jerseys.
Currently, the store has No.1, No. 5, No. 7 and No. 10 Idaho jerseys for sale.
Upon further inspection using a loophole in the NCAA’s search function, I found that searching for former linebacker Robert Siavii and former wide receiver Justin Veltung brought up the No. 1 jersey.
In addition to Siavii and Veltung, searching for former running back Ryan Bass brought up the No. 5 jersey, the names of current safety Trey Williams and former wide receiver Preston Davis brought up the No. 7 jersey and Nathan Enderle’s name brought up the No. 10 jersey.
The NCAA’s tagging of product using player names, however, isn’t limited to just jerseys. A search for current UI center Mike Marboe brought up a gold Vandals mini helmet.
The pictures above are screenshots of what came up when I searched for Siavii, Veltung, Williams, Davis, Bass, Enderle and Marboe on the NCAA's official online shop.
As the NCAA continues its ongoing litigation saga regarding the use of likenesses of student-athletes for profit, Tuesday was just another embarrassing day in the life of an organization that is rapidly losing both momentum as well as the benefit of the doubt.