NCAA to appeal ruling in antitrust case about compensation

The NCAA and major college conferences will appeal a judge’s ruling that the governing body violates antitrust laws by limiting education-related benefits to athletes.

In a statement released early Saturday, NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy said the district court “erred by giving itself authority to micromanage decisions about education-related support” to athletes.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, California, ruled this month in the so-called Alston case that football and men’s and women’s basketball players competing at the NCAA’s highest level may receive compensation from schools beyond the athletic scholarship if the benefits are tied to education.

While the judge ruled the NCAA was in violation of antitrust law, the plaintiffs had asked to lift all NCAA caps on compensation.