There’s been no shortage of major developments in the compensation of college athletes in the 2020s—from NIL to collectives to the transfer portal to revenue-sharing—yet college athletes still lack employment status.
That dynamic was noticeable in recent legal skirmishes, including Duke suing quarterback Darian Mensah in a case that resembled enforcement of a noncompete agreement, and ostensible NIL and revenue-sharing deals being used to recruit and retain athletes as if they were pro free-agent contracts.
An ongoing federal case could change all of that. Johnson v. NCAA, which began in 2019, could lead to a new order in college sports that restates the economic relationship between athletes and their schools.
The presiding judge has given the parties a deadline of next Tuesday to explain their “efforts” to reach a settlement.
Whatever they disclose will be telling.
If the parties don’t reach a settlement, and Johnson advances past a motion to dismiss, the case will progress toward potential pretrial discovery that would be much more invasive than what schools faced in House v. NCAA and other antitrust litigation. And if Johnson goes to trial and the athletes win, the NCAA and member schools could be on the hook to pay billions of dollars in damages.
Johnson is remarkably straightforward.
Led by former Villanova football player Ralph “Trey” Johnson and other male and female athletes from Division I programs, Johnson argues that student athletes are employees within the...
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