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The National Collegiate Athletic Association faced a major setback July 11 as a U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia ruled that college athletes whose efforts primarily benefit their schools may qualify as employees deserving of pay under federal wage-and-hour laws.
It’s the latest challenge to the NCAA’s long-standing concept of amateurism, according to the Associated Press. The NCAA had hoped to have the case dismissed, but it will instead go back to the trial judge for fact-finding.
In a unanimous opinion that came nearly a year and a half after the case was argued before the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the three-judge panel declared that a test should be developed to differentiate between students who play college sports for fun and those whose effort “crosses the legal line into work.”
“With professional athletes as the clearest indicators, playing sports can certainly constitute compensable work,” U.S. Circuit Judge L. Felipe Restrepo wrote. “Ultimately, the touchstone remains whether the cumulative circumstances of the relationship between the athlete and college or NCAA reveal an economic reality that is that of an employee-employer.”
Paul McDonald, a lawyer for the athlete plaintiffs in the case, said Thursday’s ruling confirms what he and his clients have been arguing: that athletes can be both students and employees.
“Students are employees in work-study programs and athletes meet the same criteria,” McDonald told USA Today. “We’re confident they will be found to be employees like other students.”
But NCAA officials still believe athletes “should not be forced into an employment model” that will “harm their experiences and needlessly cost countless student-athletes opportunities in women’s sports, Olympic sports, and sports at the HBCU and Division II and Division III levels.”
“We look forward to working with all stakeholders—including Congress—to continue to promote needed changes in the best interest of all student-athletes,” NCAA spokesperson Meghan Durham Wright said in a statement.
