The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that the National Collegiate Athletic Association went too far in blocking some education-related aid for student athletes, a decision that comes as college athletics struggles with the issue of how to preserve its amateur status.
The court said the NCAA violated antitrust laws when it limited the amount students could receive for musical instruments, scientific equipment, postgraduate scholarships, tutoring, academic awards and paid internships.
Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch said a lower court’s injunction is consistent with established antitrust principles.
The ruling did not, however, address the contentious issue of whether student athletes can be paid. The NCAA said it would consider this month whether student athletes can be compensated for the use of their names and images, which could allow them to benefit from endorsements and social media marketing.
Monday’s decision was a victory for current and former athletes in Division I basketball and the Football Bowl Subdivision, led by former West Virginia University running back Shawne Alston and former University of California center Justine Hartman. They filed a lawsuit over the NCAA’s limits on education-related benefits.
Antitrust law is involved because the schools compete aggressively for the best players and coaches. The courts have said that even though the NCAA’s limits on student benefits restrain some of that competition, the rules help preserve amateur status.
The NCAA urged the court to rule in its favor.
“For more than a hundred years, the distinct character of college sports has been that it’s played by students who are amateurs, which is to say that they are not paid for their play,” the organization’s lawyer, Seth Waxman of Washington, D.C., told the justices when the case was argued in March.
But the sports governing body faces growing pressure from state legislatures. More than a dozen have already passed laws allowing college athletes to be paid for the use of their names and images, and seven of those laws take effect in July.
The state provisions do not change the NCAA’s ban on compensation from the athlete’s school, but they would allow payments from other sources. Students who accept money for the use of their likenesses could risk losing their eligibility to play in sanctioned sports unless the NCAA changes its rules.
Congress is considering a bill that would provide a nationwide standard, but no action is imminent.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
