USA TODAY
The NCAA has spent much of the past decade getting dragged into court and being lampooned by critics. It has survived a failed attempt to unionize college athletes and avoided any type of boycott that has long been talked about but never actually organized. Generally speaking, the NCAA was allowed to exist as it ever was — all too happy to play the villain and the fool in defense of its outdated policies, as long as the money rolled in and the government stayed off its back.
But almost like a light switch flipping on in the middle of the night, the political environment around the rights of college athletes shifted completely in a matter of a few months.