The NCAA could have seen this coming decades ago. Instead, there were years of foot-dragging and litigation, and the steady chipping away at the NCAA’s insistence that endorsement rights — allowable for any other student — would ruin college sports. Until recently, the system not only would have prohibited a quarterback like the Alabama star Bryce Young from appearing in a national soft drink commercial, but it would also deny a water polo player at UC Santa Barbara the opportunity to advertise himself as such for swimming lessons. .
In court on Wednesday, many of Katz’s arguments had a familiar echo — one that dates back decades: that the case before the court could wreck college sports.
Katz said if Johnson ultimately won, and schools were required to classify athletes as employees, it would mean fewer opportunities for women, scholarships could be taxed as income — and perhaps the Internal Revenue Service would seek back taxes! — and that the test to determine whether an athlete would be an employee is inadequate.
What Katz did not mention was an argument he previously made in a lower court—that the court should defer to Vanskike v. Peters, a 1992 case that affirmed that prisoners were not entitled to employee status under the 13th Amendment and were thus not entitled to minimum wage.
“Ridiculous,” McKee chimed in when the Vanskike case was mentioned by Johnson’s presenting counsel, Michael Willemin. It was unclear whether McKee was dismissive of the legal grounds or offended by the comparison of college athletes to prisoners, or perhaps both.
Katz declined to comment after the hearing.
His description, though, of “a minefield of unintended consequences” that could result from classifying athletes as employees, had a familiar ring. It carried the same hue and cry that came from Emmert, conference commissioners, athletic directors and some coaches more than three years ago when a bill began winding its way through the California legislature that would allow college athletes to use their status to earn money.
They threatened: California schools might be banned from NCAA championships. They worried: What would keep a star basketball player from an endorsement deal with a pot dispensary, or a star quarterback from signing up with a casino?
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The NCAA could have seen this coming decades ago. Instead, there were years of foot-dragging and litigation, and the steady chipping away at the NCAA’s insistence that endorsement rights — allowable for any other student — would ruin college sports. Until recently, the system not only would have prohibited a quarterback like the Alabama star
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