So the NCAA has taken steps to examine allowing collegiate athletes to benefit from their name, likeness and image.
That’s good, right? I mean, the ability to profit from your own existence seems like common sense reform that the NCAA should have tried to tackle long before now.
Tim Sullivan delved deep into this development and what it could mean.
And if significant changes to the definition of “amateurism” (which as Dan Wolken notes, remains whatever the NCAA says it is) are coming, that would clearly be a big deal.
But here’s the burning question as it pertains to so many:
That’s right, Kirk Herbstreit, You get it.
Electronic Arts, of course, used to produce an NCAA college football video game. It was fun. It was popular.
It’s also just a memory, halted in 2013 as collateral damage from legal action and the O’Bannon case, in which a suit was brought by former college basketball player Ed O’Bannon against the NCAA and EA for using players’ likenesses in video games without them being compensated for it.
O’Bannon has caught plenty of boos for this — and unfairly, really, as he certainly had a case to make for all college athletes — and the widespread outcry over the loss of the football game has gone back a while now.
With the NCAA perhaps cracking the door to allowing its athletes to be compensated for use of likeness, might the game be able to return?
We can only hope.
Social Hour
NBA draft lottery night. The Zion Williamson sweepstakes. A big night for New Orleans.
Perhaps one of the most heated regular debates among those in Louisville.
The city’s next pro sports star:
And Bourbon War is ready to go to the Preakness:
What We’re Reading
Former Ballard High School baseball star Jo Adell is doing a regular diary for The Undefeated as he recovers from injury on his path to Major Leagues.
Justin Sayers has an in-depth look at the Bellarmine University president driving change that could result in the school’s athletics program moving to Division I.
Former UK player Jemarl Baker has found a new school.
Tight end C.J. Conrad’s NFL dreams were almost dashed as soon as he departed Kentucky. Here’s his story as the former Wildcats player now tries to make it as a pro player.
The Baltimore Sun got to know some of the people working behind the scenes at the Preakness.
Louisville City FC’s U.S. Open Cup campaign is set to begin.
Here’s a look at 10 golfers to watch in the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.
What will legalized sports betting mean in the state of Tennessee?
Gentry Estes: 502-582-4205; gestes@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @Gentry_Estes. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/gentrye.