WSJ says that California will likely lose the NCAA sports issue in the courts.
The legislation may also violate the Commerce Clause, which prohibits states from burdening interstate commerce. Nevada passed a law during the early 1990s requiring the NCAA to expand due process protections for its colleges. As in California, the Nevada law specifically forbade the NCAA to retaliate against compliant schools. Yet the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the Nevada law because it would interfere with interstate commerce.
If every state can supersede the NCAA’s rules, the organization would be rendered impotent and irrelevant. Imagine if North Carolina passed a law that said its student athletes don’t have to meet the NCAA’s academic qualifications. Or if Alabama were to require Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban to pay players. Each state would try to enact laws to obtain a competitive advantage.
The California bill will surely get tied up in court and could stymie NCAA rule revisions. The NCAA earlier this year formed a working group to consider letting athletes profit from their names, images and likenesses while maintaining “the clear demarcation between professional and college sports.” One idea is to let athletes set aside endorsement money in a trust they can tap after graduating.
So often politicians in Sacramento try to force their views and values on the rest of the country, but policies are more enduring when they are developed through a national public consensus. That’s political science 101.
If every state can supersede the NCAA’s rules, the organization would be rendered impotent and irrelevant. Imagine if North Carolina passed a law that said its student athletes don’t have to meet the NCAA’s academic qualifications. Or if Alabama were to require Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban to pay players. Each state would try to enact laws to obtain a competitive advantage.
The California bill will surely get tied up in court and could stymie NCAA rule revisions. The NCAA earlier this year formed a working group to consider letting athletes profit from their names, images and likenesses while maintaining “the clear demarcation between professional and college sports.” One idea is to let athletes set aside endorsement money in a trust they can tap after graduating.
So often politicians in Sacramento try to force their views and values on the rest of the country, but policies are more enduring when they are developed through a national public consensus. That’s political science 101.
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