NEW LAW REVIEW ARTICLE -- A Prelude to Jenkins v. NCAA: Amateurism, Antitrust Law, and the Role of Consumer Demand in a Proper Rule of Reason Analysis

As many of you know, on September 30, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in O’Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association that the National Collegiate Athletic Association violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by prohibiting member colleges from offering their athletes compensation equal to the full cost of their college attendance.  

This case opened up the door for a subsequent lawsuit -- Jenkins v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, which  attempts to challenge a broader range of restraints on big-time college athlete pay under antitrust laws.  The plaintiffs' lawyers in the Jenkins lawsuit include Jeffrey Kessler, David Greenspan, and other members of the same legal team that regularly represent NFL and NBA players in their labor and antitrust disputes.

I have just completed the final draft of my newest law review article, entitled "A Prelude to Jenkins v. NCAA: Amateurism, Antitrust Law, and the Role of Consumer Demand in a Proper Rule of Reason Analysis."  This article looks carefully at the Jenkins litigation, as well as the steps that plaintiffs' lawyers will need to take to secure broader financial rights for college athletes.  Among other things, this article looks at the O'Bannon legal teams' failure to show that paying college athletes will not harm consumer demand for big-time college sports and how the legal team in Jenkins may be able to better address that issue.

My newest article, which derives from a presentation I gave last year at LSU Law School, will appear in the upcoming edition of Louisiana Law Review.  It will also available for free download here.