NCAA asks U.S. appeals court to block pay for student-athletes

The NCAA asked a federal appeals court in Philadelphia on Wednesday to reject a legal effort to make colleges treat Division I athletes like employees and start paying them an hourly wage.

Lawyers for the studentathletes said that weekly, they often spend 30 hours or more on their sport and often need money for expenses, even if they are on full scholarship. And they believe the athletes deserve a share in the millions that are spent on coaches, college administrators and facilities — and the billions that networks pay to televise college sports.

They are not seeking pay equivalent to their market value, but a modest across-the-board pay rate similar to those earned by work-study students, the lawyers said.

The NCAA urged the court to uphold the tradition of college athletes being unpaid amateurs. Critics of the pay-for-play scheme fear the cost could lead schools to cut sports that don’t generate as much or any revenue. Lawyer Steven B. Katz, arguing for the NCAA, questioned how teams would function if some students were “paid employees” on scholarship while walk-ons without a scholarship were not.

At least one person on the panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Theodore Mckee, seemed to think at least some student-athletes may be employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act — while acknowledging such a finding would create “so many practical problems.”

A lower court judge had declined to dismiss the lawsuit before it went to trial, prompting the NCAA to appeal. The three-judge panel did not indicate when it would rule.