The Supreme Court has dealt a death blow to the NCAA.
According to CNBC, the court issued a 9-0 decision Monday announcing that the NCAA’s rules “restricting payments to athletes for items such as musical instruments or as compensation for internships” violate antitrust laws. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
In unanimous ruling, the United States Supreme Court rules against the NCAA in the Alston case. This is not the end of amateurism, but it chips away at core aspects of it and sets precedent that the NCAA is not special and is subject to normal applications federal antitrust law. pic.twitter.com/47wbzrJDgQ
— Michael McCann (@McCannSportsLaw) June 21, 2021
“Put simply, this suit involves admitted horizontal price fixing in a market where the defendants exercise monopoly control,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the decision.
The decision also previews a looming decision in the upcoming National Collegiate Athletic Assn. v. Alston, which focuses on profiting from endorsements.
“Everyone agrees that the NCAA can require student athletes to be enrolled students in good standing. But the NCAA’s business model of using unpaid student athletes to generate billions of dollars in revenue for the colleges raises serious questions under the antitrust laws,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote, according to the same report.
Brett Kavanaugh absolutely eviscerated the NCAA in his opinion here. Gonna be fun to see all the blue checkmark brigade members who were crying when he was confirmed gleefully retweeting this today. pic.twitter.com/kFNJHhMQTR
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) June 21, 2021
What a day for athletes everywhere and fans of the game. The NCAA is pretty much dead, and we’re all alive to witness it.
If the next decision on endorsements comes down in favor of athletes, which seems like a certainty at this point, then it’s game over.
It’s a curtain call for the NCAA and amateurism.
NEW: In a victory for college athletes, SCOTUS unanimously invalidates a portion of the NCAA’s “amateurism” rules. The court says the NCAA can no longer bar colleges from providing athletes with education-related benefits such as free laptops or paid post-graduate internships.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 21, 2021
And for all the idiots out there who claim athletes shouldn’t get anything past their scholarship, shoot yourself into space and never return.
If a regular citizen can receive a free laptop or a highly-paid internship, then athletes should be able to.
Trust me, plenty of them already take money under the table.
Here is the opinion in NCAA v. Alston. Justice Gorsuch delivered the opinion for a unanimous court. Justice Kavanaugh wrote separately to concur. https://t.co/GKlC9G6Q6e
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 21, 2021
Let’s kill off any remaining spirit the NCAA might have left and let college athletes make some paper!
