Will Pressure Congress To Exempt ICA from Sherman Act

Posted on: June 21, 2021 at 23:22:13 CT

I have not read the opinion, only reports on it.

My understanding is the Supreme Court found that Intercollegiate Athletics is a "market" or "markets" and that as a market or markets it is subject to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act prohibits the participants in a market from doing certain things. My recollection is the Sherman Act prohibits price fixing by the maarket participants. The Court found the NCAA's limits on compensation to players constituted price fixing and violated the Sherman Act.

The Supreme Court did not find that limitations on the amounts that culd be given to college athletes were per se unconstitutional, that is prohibited by the constitution, only that they constituted price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act. The logical next step in this process is for Congress to exempt intercollegiate athletics from the Sherman Act and to authorize the NCAA or another entity to fix the compensation paid players. Price fixing is not per se unconstitutional, i.e. public untility rates are typically set by government agenicies.

Assuming that analysis is more or less in the ball park, the most likely course of action is for the NCAA and schools to push Congress to enact legislation carving out an exception to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act for intercollegiate athletics.

Such an exemption could be crafted in any number of different ways, i.e. a complete exemption for intercollegiate athletics, a partial exemption, a delegation of rule making authority to the NCAA are ones that come to mind. I'm certain there are others.

If Congress does not enact an exemption from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act for intercollegiate athletics, it may well be the Wild West in big time college sports.

Finally, the Senate has a pending bill on this general subject and other issues before it. Committee hearings were recently conducted on it.

Edited by ScottsdaleTiger at 23:35:35 on 06/21/21