U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that the NCAA violates antitrust laws

The United States Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the NCAA’s rules on education compensation, such as internships, school laptops and computers, graduate school scholarships, etc., violated anti-trust laws and were unfair to student-athletes.

This, however, does not mean that the universities have to pay student-athlete salaries, it simply means that the NCAA is not immune to anti-trust laws. The ruling itself has nothing to with NIL.

Here is part of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion:

“Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.”

This ruling is another blow to the NCAA’s “amateur” status, which has long been under question anyway.

The NIL is set to kick off on July 1 for a handful of states, while Mark Emmert says athletes should have NIL opportunities, regardless of the state that they live in. Emmert sent out a memo recently telling schools to act on NIL, or he will:

“Since that time, many states have enacted NIL legislation and 10 state laws can take effect this July. It is therefore essential we now enact rules before the end of the month,” Emmert wrote in an email sent to presidents and chancellors, athletic directors, senior compliance administrators, conference commissioners and others.

It’s only a matter of time and it could come within the next two weeks.