US: NCAA asks Supreme Court to hear O’Bannon antitrust case

The NCAA on Friday asked the Supreme Court to take up the Ed O’Bannon antitrust case, which so far has left the association with a finding that its previous rules about athlete compensation “unreasonably restrain trade.”

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case already have asked the high court to hear the case — a petition in March to which the NCAA responded on Friday in a separate filing with the court.

Even with both sides seeking appeal, it is far from certain that the Supreme Court will take the case. The high court hears an extremely small percentage of the cases brought before it, but the NCAA noted in its petition Friday that “the need for review is particularly strong given the nationwide scope and importance of college athletics.”

In September 2015, a panel from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court decision that NCAA rules limiting athletes to receiving tuition, fees, room, board and books violate antitrust laws. It also upheld US District Judge Claudia Wilken’s ruling that while the NCAA could cap the amount of new compensation that athletes could receive while they are in school, that cap could not be an amount that is less than the athletes’ full cost of attending school.

Full Content: USA Today

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