NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy has said the NCAA will take this case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
Less than two weeks after the court decision opened the door for college athletes to receive a small portion of the millions of dollars they help generate, several attorneys told The Associated Press they believe the NCAA should now attack that cap. Wilken ruled Aug. 8 that the NCAA violated antitrust law by restricting schools from providing money beyond current scholarship limits to athletes.
She said schools should be allowed to put up to $5,000 per year of competition into a trust fund for football players and men’s basketball players, money that could be collected once they are finished with school.
Legal experts question how she reached that number and wonder whether it will hold up on appeal.
“The cap is inconsistent with a judicial decision that the restraint [of trade] is unreasonable,” said Robert McTamaney, an antitrust lawyer with the firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn. “If the restraint is unreasonable out it goes, there’s no partial remedy under the Sherman Act and, frankly, judges aren’t supposed to construct one. Either it’s good or it’s not.”
Within an hour of the ruling, NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy issued a statement noting that the governing body disagreed with the ruling but supported the cap. The NCAA, which faces a deadline today to appeal the decision, declined to comment Monday.
Wilken said she set the $5,000 annual threshold to balance the NCAA’s fears about huge payments to players.
