ABSTRACTPAY FOR PLAY: THE ROLE OF THE COURTS IN NCAA REGULATION OF AMATEURISM IN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICSByRobert S. KnissThe National Collegiate Athletic Association and the manner in which it governs intercollegiate athletics has come under intense scrutiny in its recent history. The area within the NCAA's policy's and legislation that has come under fire the most is its regulation on student-athlete amateurism. Within the past few decades the NCAA has faced an ever growing demand for it to move away from the amateurism model of college athletics, and embrace a model of pay for play. During this time the NCAA has faced numerous lawsuits that challenge the manner in which it operates. For its part, the NCAA has responded to the lawsuits, win or lose, with legislative changes that have satisfied their critics to a degree, keeping them content until the next legal confrontation arises. The NCAA has shown reluctance in scrapping its amateurism model and instead has attempted to fend off the argument of pay for play by adopting new policies as tools of mitigation for the debate.This study is an historical analysis of the court battles the NCAA has faced, and the strategic manner in which the NCAA has adopted new policies to quell the argument of pay for play in college athletics. This analysis takes a look at the cases and examines the mechanisms the NCAA uses to respond to and appease their critics, the institutions it represents, and the student-athletes. A major focus of this study is to examine how the NCAA has been able to make slight adaptions to their policies, along with introducing new programs that border on the concept of amateurism. This study shows that the policy changes made by the NCAA have been reactions to the legal conflicts they have faced and have pushed the limits of pay for play allowing the NCAA to still proclaim that student-athlete amateurism is a sacrosanct concept within intercollegiate athletics.
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