NCAA athlete likeness settlement will cost EA around $40 million

It's been a long and winding road, but the lawsuit between former NCAA student athletes and Electronic Arts over alleged likenesses without compensation in a series of NCAA games may be coming to an end.

Former National Collegiate Athletic Association players originally sued EA back in 2009, stating that the video game company had used their likenesses in multiple NCAA video games without permission or compensation.

Although EA filed many motions to dismiss the lawsuit, the company was eventually forced to settle late last year. Now Hagens Berman, the law firm representing the NCAA players, says that a settlement has been decided, with class members able to receive up to $951 for each year they were featured in one of the NCAA video games.

This means that the settlement could end up costing EA around $40 million in total. Steve Berman, MD of Hagens Berman, noted that this is the first time in history that a partner with the NCAA is having to reimburse student-athletes for using their likenesses.

That's not the end of the story, though. The former students are still suing the NCAA for allegedly looking the other way while EA commercialized the likenesses of students, while the NCAA is suing EA for alleged breach of contract.