Alston v. NCAA – drawing a (blurred) line in U.S College Sports

Published

Aug 08 2021

Written By

I am a partner specialising in IP, media and sports law in our Munich office, where I act as co-head of our international Media, Entertainment and Sport Sector Group. I bring deep experience in trade mark, design, copyright and unfair competition law and am widely known for my expertise in sports and sponsorship.

Prof. Dr. Martin Schimke, LL.M.

Of Counsel
Germany

As an Of Counsel and a member of our sports team in Düsseldorf, I am an expert sports lawyer, with decades of experience behind me. I'm also a certified specialist lawyer in employment law.

Jonathan Taylor KC

Partner
UK

As head of our Sports Group in London, I advise governing bodies, event organisers and others active in the sector, across all major sports, on a range of commercial, regulatory and contentious issues.

Practices

Commercial

Sectors

Media, Entertainment and Sport

Regions

On 21 June 2021 the US Supreme Court gave its long-awaited judgement in the Alston case. The justices unanimously ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association cannot prohibit its member schools from providing athletes with certain forms of education-related benefits, such as paid post-graduate internships, scholarships for graduate school or computer fess/equipment. The decision ended a dispute that began seven years ago as a class-action lawsuit filed against the NCAA and the major collegiate athletic conferences by athletes who played Division I football and basketball. While this decision only concerns education related benefits, it might have the power to change US College sport in its entirety.

Read the full article here >