Amateurism Vs Amateurism

Amateurism in college athletics is an exploitation of the athletes who participate in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sports. The amount of work that is done by these athletes to help their respective institutions generate millions of dollars in revenue, goes seemingly unnoticed when identifying the substantial amount of money flow in NCAA sports and the amount of people, from stakeholders to alumni, that benefit from this source. Amateurism, the foundation of NCAA sports, has been in place for over a century of time dating back to the early 1900s. Any athlete who is making money for work they’ve done outside of their institution is not being exploited, however, an athlete can easily be placed on the other end of the spectrum

The first intercollegiate football contest between Rutgers and its’ close neighbor Princeton was the trigger to creating the NCAA and establishing what is now controversially viewed as Amateurism. The legal case involving Buckton v. NCAA was one of the first legal actions brought upon the NCAA in response to violation of antitrust laws. The plaintiffs in the case were Canadian nationals, who previously played on Canadian amateur hockey teams, that were attending a university to play hockey, with the potential to seek professional careers after their tenure in college. The defendants in the case felt as though the players were ineligible due to a violation of amateur rules because they previously competed on amateur teams. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, holding judgement that there was reason to believe that the rule deemed to be violated could be interpreted differently for people from other countries than it would be for Americans residents, and there was the possibility of permanent harm to their reputations and future careers (Buckton v. NCAA,

Engage in a contract with any professional team, 2. Receive salary for participation 3. Receive prize money above necessary expenses 4. Play with professionals 5. Take place in a tryout, practice, or competition with a professional team 6. Benefit from an agent 7. Agree to representation by an agent or 8. Delay collegiate enrollment to participate in another organized sports competition (NCAA, 1973). In a 2006 lawsuit White v. NCAA, the plaintiff Jason White and others filed suit against the NCAA for alleged violations of the Sherman Act. White alleged that the NCAA and its member institutions agreed upon setting a cap on the grant-in-aid (GIA) players could receive solely to reduce costs, meanwhile players faced necessary expenses such as insurance that were not covered by the amount given in their GIA (White v. NCAA, 2006). Two years after the original filing, the case settled for $10 million in favor of the plaintiff, under the judge ruled that the NCAA’s motion failed to effectively plead to a relative market and failed to allege harm to the competition. (White v. NCAA 2006). In the most recent sports history, O’Bannon v. NCAA in 2014, was the groundbreaking court case brought upon by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon. O’Bannon originally filed suit against the NCAA, EA Sports, and Collegiate Licensing Company. He proceeded on