NCAA plays defense in Supreme Court case

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday grilled the NCAA on its bid to maintain limits on education-related compensation for student-athletes.

During about 90 minutes of arguments in the NCAA's appeal of a lower court ruling that deemed the limits an anticompetitive business practice, some of the nine justices seemed concerned that the organization could be using the cover of amateurism to fix labor prices at an artificially low level.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh:

"I start from the idea that the antitrust laws should not be a cover for exploitation of the student athletes so that is an overarching concern here."

The case concerns NCAA limits on non-cash payments to college athletes related to education, including computers and science equipment.

And although the case does not involve direct payments to athletes, the broader question of player compensation has increasingly become a point of contention.

College sports, including the "March Madness" basketball tournament currently taking place, bring in billions of dollars in revenue, but players remain tied to what critics call a fiction of amateurism.

But the justices on Wednesday questioned a 2019 injunction issued by a California-based U.S. District judge allowing education-related compensation, wondering among other things if the judge had imposed arbitrary new rules and paved the way to a whole host of future challenges to other NCAA policies.

Justice Stephen Breyer:

“This is not an ordinary product… I worry a lot about judges getting involved in the business on how amateur sports should be run.”

NCAA's lawyer Seth Waxman on Wednesday argued that there is precedent, allowing the organization to maintain a distinction between college and professional sports.

He added that in order to retain that distinction, athletes must be genuine students and not be paid. Looking for a similar SOT here.

"That permit schools to allow pay-for-play."

Georgia, joined by eight other states, filed a brief backing the NCAA, saying that allowing the compensation would lead to some colleges having to increase fees or cut some sports, while eight other states and President Joe Biden's administration back the players.