Taming the Wild West: Can Order Be Restored to the Collegiate Playing Fields?

Author: Edward D. Cavanagh

The landmark settlement in House v. NCAA heralds a new era in intercollegiate athletics. For the first time, colleges and universities will be authorized to pay their athletes directly. For decades, NCAA rules barred member schools from paying their athletes, even as college sports programs generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues shared by the NCAA and its members. After House, college athletes will now get of a piece of that pie.

At first blush, the House settlement appears to be a win-win situation for athletes. However, the settlement also raises profoundly difficult questions, which, in turn, creates a great deal of uncertainty about the future of intercollegiate athletics: (1) Will all athletes be paid, or only those in revenue-producing sports? (2) How will compensation for individual team members be allocated? (3) What is the impact of House on non-revenue producing college sports; (4) How does Title IX impact the amount of compensations received? (5) Are college athletes, after House, now to be viewed as employees of their schools with the rights to engage in collective bargaining and to receive a minimum wage? (6) Should Congress intervene with legislation protecting the NCAA and its members from lawsuits?

It is likely that many of these questions will be resolved only after further litigation-precisely what the NCAA sought to avoid by settling House in the first place. The only sure thing is that college athletics will never be the same. Read more.