Ruling keeps NCAA from limiting some athlete pay

A court decision the NCAA says will hurt college sports by allowing certain student-athletes to be paid “vast sums” of money as “educational expenses” will go into effect after the Supreme Court declined Tuesday to intervene at this point.

Justice Elena Kagan denied the NCAA’s request to put a lower court ruling on hold at least temporarily while the NCAA asks the Supreme Court to take up the case. It plans to do so by mid-October.

Kagan declined to put on hold a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In May it upheld a lower-court ruling prohibiting the NCAA from limiting compensation for education-related expenses for student-athletes. The ruling applies to athletes in Division I football and basketball programs.

The NCAA said the ruling “effectively created a pay-for-play system for all student-athletes, allowing them to be paid both ‘unlimited' amounts for participating in ‘internships’ ” and an additional $5,600 or more each year they remain eligible to play their sport.

The ruling allows Division I conferences to still independently set rules for education-related compensation provided to studentathletes.

Donald Remy, the NCAA’s chief legal officer, said in a statement Tuesday that the NCAA’s Division I Council will meet Wednesday to “put in place an immediate implementation plan.” Remy said that given the “adverse impact” of the appeals court’s decision and despite Kagan declining to put it on hold, the NCAA still plans to ask the Supreme Court to take the case.