Jenkins v. NCAA: Is the NCAA An Illegal Cartel?

Intercollegiate sports generate about $12 billion in revenues every year. The NCAA instituted the four-year athletic scholarship to compensate student athletes in 1950, but started to place restrictions on those scholarships in 1973.

Student athletes have successfully challenged NCAA restrictions in a series of antitrust lawsuits. This seminar will examine the history of antitrust cases brought against the NCAA, culminating in Jenkins v. NCAA, in which former college athletes asserted that the NCAA has violated antitrust laws by prohibiting the compensation of players for television appearances.

The seminar is hosted by veteran trial attorney and Montclair State University professor Gary J. Chester, who addresses the fundamental goals of antitrust law, the history of antitrust cases against the NCAA, whether the result in Jenkins proves that the NCAA is an illegal cartel, and the future of intercollegiate athletics.

Learning Objectives:

1. Gain a basic understanding of antitrust law
2. Examine how antitrust law applies to intercollegiate athletics
3. Identify the issues involved in contemporary antitrust actions against the NCAA