ALI Council Member Seth Waxman argued before the Ninth Circuit on March 17 in a closely watched appeal of a ruling last year that said the NCAA was exerting monopoly powers by refusing to share with college players the earnings it gets from TV broadcasts, video games and other marketing.
Waxman, a former Solicitor General, argued that the lower court failed to follow the clear holding of the U.S. Supreme Court in a 31-year-old case about college football TV rights. In NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, he said, the justices held that: “To preserve the character and quality of the ‘product,’ athletes must not be paid.”
The argument was held just hours before the March Madness college basketball tournament got underway and garnered headlines nationwide. Watch a video of the argument on the Ninth Circuit’s website. Read accounts of the argument in The New York Times or in The Los Angeles Times.