Today the Supreme Court handed down its decision in NCAA v. Alston, upholding a district court ruling (and Ninth Circuit affirmation) that the NCAA’s current restrictions on education-related benefits to student athletes violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the unanimous opinion, and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the only concurring opinion. You can read the decision and Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion here.
In very short summary of the SCOTUS decision: the NCAA is fully subject to antitrust law and can’t shield itself by repeating “Amateurism” while clicking its heels three times; the NCAA’s restrictions on education-related benefits are, as the district court wrote, “patently and inexplicably stricter than necessary,” to the point of being unlawful; and that the NCAA can retain consumer demand for college sports while using substantially less restrictive alternatives.