How Antitrust Law Could Reform College Football: Section 1 of the Sherman Act and the Hope for Tangible Change

Abstract

This speech discusses how the absurdity came to pass where college football has become a multibillion dollar business, yet a majority of college football players live below the poverty line. This speech also discusses how antitrust litigation against the National Collegiate Athletic Association and its member colleges could serve as the much-needed impetus for reform to the system, and why a proper antitrust remedy could yield economic reform and tangible change in college sports. Overall, this is a speech built on optimism, but only optimism presuming that the courts properly recognize that the NCAA’s current mode of business violates federal antitrust laws, and only if the courts ultimately require changes to better protect the legal rights of all stakeholder groups within the collegiate sports industry.

Keywords: NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association, antitrust, amateurism, sports law, college football, Sherman Act, Sherman Antitrust Act, sports, college sports, higher education

JEL Classification: D23, D42, D43, D60, I2, I20, J41, J5, K31, L40, K4, L83