By Diana L. Moss and Jason Gold
The prospect of playing a sport in college has motivated countless young Americans. How could it not? The simultaneous benefits of getting a degree, athletic training and team camaraderie, representing a college, and the potential to carve out a future professional sports career are all in play. Since the first college varsity football challenge in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers, colleges have been a major venue for young, amateur athletes to pursue these worthy goals. Developments in the traditional college sports model of “amateurism” have, at times, put these considerations to the test. But it is the more recent changes in the legal and economic complexities around college sports that are now redefining the norm.
The fundamental shift in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) long-standing model came in the 2021 Alston v. NCAA case. There, the Supreme Court found that the league violated antitrust law by restricting athlete compensation to preserve the spirit of amateurism.
The NCAA’s loss in court meant that college student athletes are now able to control and profit from Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) agreements and other endorsements. However, settlements in ongoing private antitrust class action cases will also affect how colleges share revenue from sports programs by directly paying student athletes.
