US: Leading antitrust professors challenge judge’s NCAA ruling

Fifteen antitrust professors have joined in support of the NCAA’s appeal of a landmark ruling that demands the association compensate its players for various business ventures.

According to reports, the professors filed a brief Friday with the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to argue that US District Judge Claudia Wilken “misapplied” certain aspects of her analysis when she ruled that the NCAA’s business practices violate antitrust law.

Upholding Judge Wilken’s decision “would substantially expand the power of the federal courts to alter organizational rules that serve important social and academic interests,” the brief said. “This approach expands the ‘less restrictive alternative prong’ of the antitrust rule of reason well beyond any appropriate boundaries and would install the judiciary as a regulatory agency for collegiate athletics.”

Its authors included antitrust guru Herbert Hovenkamp from the University of Iowa College of Law, D. Daniel Sokol from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and Susan Beth Farmer from Pennsylvania State University’s Dickinson School of Law.

Reports say CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC and TBS all filed their own briefs in support of the NCAA’s appeal as well.

The case stems from former collegiate athlete Ed O’Bannon who, with a group of other athletes, sued the NCAA for antitrust violations in how the association allegedly fails to adequately compensate its athletes for the use of name and likeness in various business ventures. Judge Wilken sided with the plaintiffs and raised the cap of athlete compensation.

Full content: CBS Sports

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