Ncaa Rulings on Revenue- Providing Athletes

NCAA Rulings on Revenue- Providing Athletes

Brittany Charles

Business Law

Dr. Palmer

11.20.14

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, also commonly referred to as the NCAA, is a non-profit organization that regulates over almost half a million individuals who compete in sports at the collegiate level. This organization spends most of its time protecting the rights of student- athletes by enforcing rules and regulations on a regular basis to ensure the student athletes are able to perform at the best of their ability. The term “student athlete” originated from the NCAA in the 1950’s after a case that dealt with the widow of collegiate football player Ray Dennison, who died from a head injury during a football game. Mrs. Dennison filed for workers compensation death benefits after the injury, arguing the case that Dennison was a worker for the university. While Mrs. Dennison ended up losing the case, the new term “student athlete” became a common phrase used for students participating in athletics. Collegiate athletes are not merely “students at play”, which might understate their athletic obligations and group them with the group of non- athletes who still participate in unorganized sports or club sports. Collegiate athletes are also not athletes in college, which might imply that they are professionals. “That they were high-performance athletes meant they could be forgiven for not meeting the academic standards of their peers; that they were students meant they did not have to be compensated, ever, for anything more than the cost of their studies”  (Branch, Taylor).

A main issue that the NCAA deals with in protecting the rights of these student- athletes is to ensure that they perform at the amateur level and do not make mistakes like taking money from any coach or giving their signatures for money, which would label them as professional athletes. For example, former Texas A&M football star was suspended for several games for signing...