Congress has allowed another layer of legal antitrust protection related to college athletics to expire this Friday.
The law, which is officially removed at the end of the day Friday, previously granted an exemption to Ivy League schools that allowed them to prohibit merit-based scholarships to all students, including their athletes. Without that Congressional protection, the league becomes more vulnerable to lawsuits that claim schools are colluding with one another in order to avoid competing for the most talented students.
Officials from the Ivy League did not respond to multiple questions about whether they plan to change their policies in the absence of a Congressional exemption.
The college sports business model has been reformed and regularly threatened by antitrust lawsuits throughout the past decade. Most notably, the Supreme Court voted unanimously in June 2021 to uphold a ruling that stated that members of the NCAA could not collude to limit the academic-based compensation they provide to athletes. A concurring opinion from Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that the court system ought to reconsider allowing the NCAA to limit any type of compensation for athletes — a shift that if it happened would open the door for schools paying their athletes directly.
“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,” Kavanaugh wrote.
The NCAA and college sports leaders from conferences and schools responded by asking members of Congress to draft new legislation that would include, in part, an antitrust exemption to make it easier for the NCAA members to regulate how athletes are compensated. After multiple years of lobbying and roughly a dozen proposed bills related to the future of college sports, the idea of an antitrust exemption remains unpopular among lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The decision to allow the Ivy League exemption to expire does not bode well for any remaining hopes among college sports leaders that the NCAA might receive any type of similar exemption.
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
Featured News
Judge Mehta Questions Both Sides in Landmark Google Antitrust Case
May 2, 2024 by
CPI
FCC Urges Urgent Funding for Removal of Chinese Telecom Equipment from U.S. Networks
May 2, 2024 by
CPI
Former Pioneer CEO Facing Potential Criminal Charges For Colluding With OPEC
May 2, 2024 by
CPI
South Korea’s Antitrust Regulator Greenlights K-Pop Powerhouse Deal
May 2, 2024 by
CPI
Exxon’s Pioneer Purchase Approved, Former CEO Barred from Board
May 2, 2024 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Economics of Criminal Antitrust
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI
Navigating Economic Expert Work in Criminal Antitrust Litigation
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI
The Increased Importance of Economics in Cartel Cases
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI
A Law and Economics Analysis of the Antitrust Treatment of Physician Collective Price Agreements
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI
Information Exchange In Criminal Antitrust Cases: How Economic Testimony Can Tip The Scales
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI