Supreme Court will consider restrictions on compensation for college athletes
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider whether restrictions on compensation for college athletes violate federal antitrust law.
The high court accepted and consolidated two cases seeking to overturn a May decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco. The appeals court had ruled that the NCAA’s eligibility rules unlawfully restrained trade.
The Washington Post and USA Today have coverage.
The 9th Circuit ruling had barred the NCAA from limiting education-related benefits for student athletes in Division I basketball and Football Bowl Subdivision football programs.
In August, the Supreme Court refused to block the ruling from taking effect while the NCAA and a group of athletic conferences sought review, according to previous coverage by SCOTUSblog.
In its October cert petition, the NCAA argued thats its eligibility rules foster competition among amateur athletic teams and are not anticompetitive.
“At issue in this case,” the cert petition said, “is whether the nationwide rules that define who is eligible to participate in NCAA sports will henceforth be set by the NCAA or by one federal judge in California, assisted by the imagination of plaintiffs’ lawyers and subject only to deferential 9th Circuit review.”
The cases are National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston and American Athletic Conference v. Alston.
Hat tip to @NPR.
