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Final Curtains for the Amateur/Educational Model in the NCAA – The Harsh Realities for US College Sports in the Post-Alston Era

Urheilu ja oikeus 2025 s. 104–124
1.4.2026
Asiantuntija-artikkeli

Sports play a tremendously important role in the United States educational system, both at the high school and collegiate levels, and have undoubtedly a much stronger social and economic mission in American society compared to Europe. Traditionally, a very sharp distinction between amateur and professional sports has been maintained in the US, which has had a deep impact on the jurisprudence concerning US amateur sports. The original idea to uphold the principle of strict amateurism for student-athletes, particularly in the most commercial sports organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), has been under heavy legal scrutiny in the last couple of years.

The rapid evolution over just a few years and the following fundamental changes of the US college sports system, organized under the NCAA umbrella, are without any doubt the most significant and dramatic events that have happened in US sports law, since the adoption of genuine collective bargaining in US major sports leagues in the 1980s. This article analyses how NCAA college sports have come to face this severe, and almost existential threat, and try to contemplate what may be the outcome of President Trump’s Executive Order, with or without Congress passing tailor-made anti-trust exemption legislation to protect the NCAA at a later stage.

(Edilex-toimitus)

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