[BostonCard]

For all its faults the NCAA was the glue that kept college sports together on a national basis.  Now many sports journalists are predicting the total downfall of the NCAA.

If that happens here is another Pandora's box to look out for.  The NCAA has requirements for high school GPA and test scores to be eligible for college sports.  Those requirements have been temporarily waived due to Covid.

Without NCAA guidance will some football factories accept high school dropouts?  Will some schools accept 16 and 17 year old kids and craft a four year plus cirriculum of "remedial" courses?

The void left by the NCAA will be filled by conferences. A lot will be determined by which conferences agree to work together and how they work together.

I don't think so. The conferences have exactly the same legal problems the NCAA did. The schools can't collude together (form conferences) to restrain trade. It is just a smaller collusion, but still a combination in restraint of trade.

The existence of multiple conferences with different rules might offer some leeway to argue that players have the choice to transfer to a more permissive conference where they might be able to earn more money.

It’s hard to know where this will all lead.  We have had some lawsuits that have clearly told us that the system as it had existed was illegal, but we haven’t yet tested the bounds of that, and we don’t know how the system might evolve to fit within the law better.  The Supreme Court’s ruling hinted that there is more to come, but was still pretty narrow.  They (especially Kavenough) hinted that there could be more to come, but it is notable that the majority still chose to go with a narrow ruling.

BC

[BostonCard]

For all its faults the NCAA was the glue that kept college sports together on a national basis.  Now many sports journalists are predicting the total downfall of the NCAA.

If that happens here is another Pandora's box to look out for.  The NCAA has requirements for high school GPA and test scores to be eligible for college sports.  Those requirements have been temporarily waived due to Covid.

Without NCAA guidance will some football factories accept high school dropouts?  Will some schools accept 16 and 17 year old kids and craft a four year plus cirriculum of "remedial" courses?

The void left by the NCAA will be filled by conferences. A lot will be determined by which conferences agree to work together and how they work together.

I don't think so. The conferences have exactly the same legal problems the NCAA did. The schools can't collude together (form conferences) to restrain trade. It is just a smaller collusion, but still a combination in restraint of trade.

The existence of multiple conferences with different rules might offer some leeway to argue that players have the choice to transfer to a more permissive conference where they might be able to earn more money.

It’s hard to know where this will all lead.  We have had some lawsuits that have clearly told us that the system as it had existed was illegal, but we haven’t yet tested the bounds of that, and we don’t know how the system might evolve to fit within the law better.  The Supreme Court’s ruling hinted that there is more to come, but was still pretty narrow.  They (especially Kavenough) hinted that there could be more to come, but it is notable that the majority still chose to go with a narrow ruling.

BC