Page 20 - Delaware Lawyer - Winter 2023

FEATURE
Professionals?
Dr. Matthew J. Robinson
Amateurs or
NCAA v. Alston
and the future of intercollegiate athletics
The ramifications of the June 2021 United States Supreme Court ruling in NCAA v. Alston have altered and will continue to roil the landscape of intercollegiate athletics for years to come.
18 DELAWARE LAWYER WINTER 2023
While the ruling addressed the anti- trust behavior of the national gov- erning body of intercollegiate ath- letics — the National Collegiate Ath- letic Association (NCAA) — regarding limits being imposed on the awarding of educational benefits to student-ath- letes, it also established precedence so that in the future the NCAA must con- sider a legally valid procompetitive jus- tification for any of its rules that would limit student-athlete compensation or face litigation challenging those rules.
The post-Alston environment is one where universities must allow and, in some instances, coordinate student-
athletes’ opportunities to benefit finan- cially from their name, image and likeness (NIL) while also respecting the authority of the NCAA, whose rules have histori- cally enabled intercollegiate athletics to differentiate themselves from professional sports. In recent years, the difference be- tween the two has become more blurred, and while student-athletes are able to be compensated, the authenticity and uniqueness of what once was intercolle- giateathleticsiseroding.
This article will look at past court decisions and NCAA regulations that led up to Alston and summarize the NCAA’s and individual institutions’