NCAA, COVID and Paying Players: Negotiating Payment in the Midst of a Pandemic

By Antitrust Advocate

Last year we examined the decision in Alston v. NCAA, an opinion by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California holding that the NCAA was in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and therefore the organization could not fix or limit the amount of compensation paid to players unless the money offered to the students was “related to education.”

In May, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled unanimously against the NCAA in its appeal of the lower court decision, finding that the organization’s policies that prohibit student-athletes from being compensated are, in fact, anticompetitive. Of course, there are miles to go with this litigation, as the NCAA has already planned to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would hear the case in its October 2020 term if certiorari is granted.

As another update, the NCAA is trying to halt the enforcement of the Ninth Circuit decision through a request for a stay to the Supreme Court. Just this month, the Supreme Court rejected the NCAA’s bid to temporarily reinstate caps on education-related compensation for college athletes. Justice Elena Kagan denied the association’s request for the stay that would have prevented the lower court order from taking effect as scheduled. The NCAA had argued that the court-ordered injunction would irreparably harm college sports if it takes effect immediately because its impact will be imposing, costly and irreparably harmful…

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