Skeptic
Helluva Engineer
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One of the broader aspects of this -- and I am in the athletes' corner almost all the way -- is how this money making venture will be governed and by whom. Are the athletes going to be hounded by "agents" day and night, at school, at home and, I betcha, on the practice field? And pray tell, who is the guardian angel(s) who will help them navigate. Lord knows no matter what a school does to insulate a 19-year-old from the sharks -- Nike, that means you -- by giving them courses in financial management, more than half the NFL players who in theory make millions are broke within a decade of retirement, and owe millions of dollars.I shared more information on the Supreme Court NCAA v Alston decision at https://gtswarm.com/threads/general-ncaa-thread.23305/.
There was the majority (“official”) decision written by Gorsuch, and a concurring but harsher opinion by Kavanaugh, with the Gorsuch opinion being precedent. The majority of what I’ve seen is
- The NCAA is covered by anti-trust law, even though they argued that it doesn’t apply to them
- There’s little to no legal weight given to “amateurism” as a defense.
- This decision was on a narrow topic (internships, summer jobs, and other “academic” compensation), and the NCAA lost entirely on the narrow compensation topic. Kavanaugh’s concurrence implies “bring us more cases; unless Congress gives the NCAA special protection, we’re ready to make broader decisions”.
- No one believes Congress is going to give the NCAA anti-trust protection. I think you’d get majority bipartisan opposition to that.
- For what it’s worth, Kavanaugh’s concurrence says that the NCAA’s compensation model is unjustified and ludicrous, and that it’s ridiculous to have an industry where some people make a lot of money and the workers don’t really get paid. If lawyers see that and don’t think “I can take this NCAA case to the Supreme Court”, I don’t know what kind of hint they’re waiting for.
- This case in particular doesn’t change a lot directly, but it’s a clear signal for lawyers that it’s open season on the NCAA
- “Winter is coming” and the NCAA is publicly ignoring it
It is all well and good to make the NCAA cough up some of its loot, but history says few athletes will even have a clue how to figure out what his likeness is worth.
I am not a lawyer but if there is one out there who can't figure a way to make a buck here, then he or she should get into auto repair.