HISTORY100 - Student Athlete Compensation
This blog is about the history of compensating college athletes - allowing them to be able to profit from playing sports, either from their school or a third-party donor. After almost 70 years of demands and litigation, in 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) agreed to so-called NIL compensation, the use of an athlete’s name, image, and likeness, through marketing and promotional endeavors, including autograph signings, product endorsements, social media posts, and more. And then on May 23, 2024, the NCAA and its five power conferences agreed to allow colleges to directly pay players for the first time in the 100-plus-year history of college sports. These milestones mark a seismic change to the college sport business, but have left that business in chaos, because of so many unresolved issues. I will start with the beginning of intercollegiate athletics in the United States in the 1850s, before the NCAA. Next, I will cover the formation of the NCAA in