Monday, June 21, 2021

College Athletes

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA and in favor of student athlete compensation:

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) violated the rights of student athletes by restraining their compensation. Specifically, the NCAA violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by unduly restraining colleges from compensating student athletes.

The NCAA rules “depress compensation for at least some student-athletes below what a competitive market would yield,” thus violating their rights under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the syllabus for NCAA v. Alston (2021) explained...

The Supreme Court’s decision is indeed historic, but Kavanaugh is correct: It does not go nearly far enough. If the NCAA has violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, then it should not just have to allow colleges to offer more education-related benefits to student athletes — it should have to allow colleges to pay their money-making sports stars.

I envision that, if taken to its logical end, I as a taxpayer will be funding not only the "education" but also the remuneration of college athletes.   That would be a bizarre outcome.

3 comments:

ObieJuan said...

Of course the logical conclusion is that collegiate female athletes will be paid as much as males.

Women might find they can make more money playing college sports than they could on the "open market" playing professional sports.

Ellen K said...

If student athletes are paid, then the rest of the students no longer need to be charged fees for facilities and services they cannot use. In fact, their income should be considered for FAFSA and if they can pay the full way, they should. Some wunderkind making millions off of shoes should shell out a bit for tuition and room and board. My kids worked full time while in school. FAFSA told us my entire annual salary was a "reaonsble contribution" when we had three kids in college. I think eventually this will be a death blow to college athletics and they will eventually be removed from the universities. Then the bright money me will start going after high school kids.

Darren said...

Ellen K, good point about student fees!