Whiff.
That's the sound of the NCAA swinging and missing on a legal battle that could open the floodgates for student-athletes in future fights for fair pay in college sports.
The Supreme Court of the United States dealt a big blow to the NCAA Monday morning with its unanimous decision in NCAA v. Alston, where it ruled a challenged injunction would stand against NCAA rules limiting the education-related benefits provided to student-athletes because it fit within established antitrust principles.
But the biggest blow of this decision was the language used by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in his concurring opinion.
"The student athletes who generate the revenues, many of whom are African American and from lower-income backgrounds, end up with little or nothing," Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion, adding how college sports has become a billion-dollar industry. "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."
That language, and Kavanaugh's complete opinion, directly attacks the NCAA's stance to not allow modest compensation to student-athletes.
Adding insult to injury, this case was only in front of the SCOTUS because the NCAA petitioned against the previously mentioned injunction. Had the NCAA just allowed the injunction to stand, that battle would've been lost but without this language that could be a big tool for student-athlete advocates.
As state legislatures continue to push for the rights of players, this loss could've been a lot smaller if the NCAA had left well-enough alone. But now, student-athletes and their advocates can see that language as the floodgates opening for a huge opportunity to challenge the NCAA on outright compensation in the country's highest court.
That might make the NCAA's fight against one injunction the most expensive swing-and-miss in all of sports.
YOUR TAKE: Should student-athletes have the right to fair compensation?
