The Supreme Court on the NCAA really means nothing, yet.
When the Supreme Court upheld a lower court-ruling that schools could not deny athletes money and opportunities when it comes to their education, it gave the NCAA a pass on whether its business model is going to crumble.
It won’t, for now, with the higher court’s ruling. Name, Image and Likeness, which is being fought over like a slippery football in a rainstorm, doesn’t apply because it has little to do with education. Some schools, some states, and some conferences may pass something on NIL, but not for a while.
So, if getting a full academic scholarship isn’t enough, how can athletes make more money on their educational endeavors. Will Lenovo hire Sam Howell to do commercials for the ThinkPad because he is the thinking man’s quarterback? Can athletes be paid for acting in school plays? Who decides any of that?
Can colleges arbitrarily raise benefits on a full scholarship, like the NCAA did a few years ago with cost of attendance to match what academic full rides pay? But how much more can athletes get paid if it doesn’t actually come from revenues?
Justice Kavanaugh was right when he said college athletics is the only business in America where the employees drive most of the revenue but don’t get paid. How can adding to their educational perks make them as much money as if they got shares of the gate receipts or the TV payouts?
This may be a first step that forces the NCAA to tear up its business model and start over, which could jeopardize their long-held amateur status. And if the NCAA, on its own, came up with a plan that cut the athletes in, the government might back out of it other than making a deal on taxes the NCAA would have to pay by losing its tax-exempt status.
With everything that works its way through the NCAA moving at a snail’s pace, and the Supreme Court yet to rule on something that directly relates to athletes getting paid for their play, not much will change. How all parties decide how anything changes will remain an epic battle for the foreseeable future.
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