The Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA in a case involving the compensation of student athletes.
The ruling blasts a hole in the NCAA’s longstanding rule forbidding any kind of pay to athletes.
Highlights:
The justices ruled that schools should be allowed to give students what amount to financial perks, provided they are related to education. That could mean things such as musical instruments, tutoring, scientific equipment, postgrad scholarships, and study abroad.
The NCAA has long barred schools from doling out such benefits because it says it wants to preserve student-athletes’ amateur status. The NCAA argues that schools will keep sweetening offers to recruits with such benefits, setting off bidding wars for high school seniors. But the court said that stance violates anti-trust laws.
An opinion written by Brett Kavanaugh signals that the court may be willing to knock down all restrictions on student pay in a future case. He wrote, tradition “cannot justify the NCAA’s decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated. And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.”
