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32 J. Legal Aspects Sport 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/jlas32 and id is 1 raw text is: 






Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport, 2022,32,1-61
https:/doi.org/110.18060/24493
©Sam C. Ehrlich



              A   Three-Tiered Circuit Split:

     Why the Supreme Court Was Right to

                     Hear NCAA v. Alston


                               Sam C. Ehrlich

     This article provides a retrospective look at the Supreme Court's decision to
     review the NCAA v. Alston antitrust litigation by defining and analyzing a three-
     tiered circuit split that existed in the courts' application of antitrust law to NCAA
     amateurism regulations. Using mixed-methods citation network analysis review,
     this article shows wide disarray within the NCAA amateurism discrete citation
     network by analyzing the doctrinal differences in how three distinct jurisdictional
     silos applied antitrust law to four broad categories of NCAA rules. As such, this
     article argues that the Supreme Court was correct to grant certiorari to the Alston
     petitioners to resolve this circuit split and better define the precedential effect of the
     much-debated NCAA v. Board ofRegents.

     Keywords: antitrust law, intercollegiate sports, sports law, Supreme Court


                               Introduction
Based  on  the Ninth  Circuit Court of Appeals'  definitive opinion  in Alston v.
NCAA'-and the Supreme Court's unanimous adoption of that opinion2-a
reader unfamiliar  with  the intricacies and history of the treatment  of college
sports by the antitrust courts would be justified in thinking that courts have been
unanimous   in their belief that the treatment of college athletes by the National
Collegiate Athletic  Association  (NCAA)   is violative of §1 of the  Sherman
Antitrust Act.3 The  Ninth  Circuit's almost  absolute reliance on  O 'Bannon  v.


  958 F.3d 1239 (9th Cir. 2020).
2 NCAA  v. Alston, 594 U.S.___ 141 S. Ct. 2141 (2021).
3 26 Stat. 209, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 1.



Sam Ehrlich, JD, PhD, is an assistant professor of legal studies with the Department of Manage-
ment at the Boise State University College of Business of Economics. His research focuses on
sports labor relations and the legal governance of sports leagues, specifically through sport-specif-
ic antitrust exemptions, athlete fairness in collective bargaining and employment, and tort liability
for overseeing athletic organizations. Email: samehrlichraboisestateedu


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