I don’t mean to be a skunk in the March Madness garden party, but did you notice that just before the tournament began last week, the plaintiffs in O’Bannon v. N.C.A.A. petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case? Earlier, the defendant N.C.A.A. had asked for — and received — an extension to file its own petition. (It’s due April 14.) Although the Supreme Court agrees to hear only a small fraction of petitioned cases, O’Bannon is worth its attention.
Its central question is whether the N.C.A.A.’s amateurism rules — which currently restrict compensation for college athletes to a scholarship and a few thousand dollars to cover the “full cost of attendance” — are unreasonably, and perhaps illegally, restrictive.