818.501.4343March 19, 2025
The nature of professional and semi-professional sports has changed significantly over time. If you were alive in the 70s and 80s, you may remember that Olympians all had to be amateurs.
Once they started to get paid for their accomplishments, the U.S. Olympic Team wouldn’t accept them. Then, the Dream Team took the court in 1992, and any semblance of that rule went out the window.
These types of changes are not restricted to the Olympics. The rules for professional, semi-professional, and amateur sports change regularly. Some changes are caused by decisions within the sport, while other changes are forced by sports law cases.
As an HR professional working in the world of sports, these changes can have a significant impact on your job. The next change may alter your job forever. Understanding how the following past sports law cases have changed the industry can better prepare you for the effects of future cases.
College Sports Enter Prime Time
One of the most influential examples of sports case law occurred in 1984. Up until that year, the NCAA significantly restricted how often college football games could be regionally or nationally televised. In theory, this limit was designed to ensure that live attendance didn’t drop at football games.
However, the federal courts found this reasoning lacking and determined that the NCAA had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. The ruling opened the floodgates, allowing every school to enter independent television contracts with national and regional broadcasters.
Professional Golfers Enjoy Disability Protections
This is one of the more surprising sports law cases because it seemed like the plaintiff never had a chance — and yet he won. Golfer Casey Martin had a disability that affected his ability to walk between holes. He requested a disability accommodation from the USPGA and was denied.
When he filed a sports lawsuit against the USPGA, it seemed like he didn’t have a case. The USPGA claimed that walking was a part of the sport, and thus, he had to follow the rules. However, the court ruled that walking was not fundamental to the sport, so the USPGA should have made the accommodation.
That is a lesson to keep in mind. Just because the rules of the sport say something is true, it doesn’t necessarily mean it should be true. Some rules do nothing but unnecessarily discriminate against specific types of players without adding to the sport.
Contractual Arbitration Is Legitimate
The rise and fall of Lance Armstrong is one of the best-known controversies in any sporting world. Few sports law cases are as well known outside of the fanbase.
Shortly before he received a lifetime ban, Armstrong faced a difficult choice. He could contest the charges of doping against him in arbitration or accept the sanctions issued by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Armstrong preferred to take a third option: file a lawsuit in federal court.
Unfortunately for him, that lawsuit didn’t go the way he wanted. The court ruled that he had signed a contract to accept arbitration. Therefore, his due process rights hadn’t been violated. This isn’t a particularly surprising ruling since the U.S. Constitution expressly protects contractual agreements.
NCAA Players Finally Get Paid
One of the most dramatic sports law cases was resolved in 2024 when the NCAA reached a settlement with college athletes. This settlement had two major effects.
First, the NCAA agreed to distribute almost $3 billion to athletes who had competed since 2021. These are the athletes who started the class-action lawsuit.
Second, the NCAA agreed to create a revenue-sharing model that would allow schools to directly pay their athletes. This means that NCAA athletes are no longer amateurs. They are now at least semi-professionals getting paid for their efforts as long as their schools make money from the sports they play in.
This decision will hit particularly hard if you are an HR professional working at a college. You will need to handle pay for college athletes, a task that is sure to change over the next few years.
At present, the mechanisms for how this will happen are undefined. Who will be paid? How much? Will one athlete get more than another? These are important questions that need to be answered, preferably with Title IX in mind.
The NCAA Is Not a State Actor
This 1988 case changed the playing field significantly for how the NCAA dealt with rule infractions and penalties. The NCAA found that coach Jerry Tarkanian had engaged in 10 violations of recruiting rules while working for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Among the many penalties the NCAA imposed, it required the university to suspend Tarkanian or show reasons why it shouldn’t.
Tarkanian responded by claiming the NCAA had deprived him of his due process rights. Considering that the NCAA was, up until this time, considered a state actor, this was a reasonable claim.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court changed that. It determined that the NCAA was not a state actor and, therefore, it wasn’t required to protect the due process rights of athletes or coaches.
The decision continues to have an impact today. Athletes and coaches are bound by the rules of the NCAA but can’t rely on Constitutional protections when defending themselves from internal charges.
Navigating HR in an Ever-Changing Sports Industry
Every time sports law cases set new precedents, the standards you follow in your job may change. Today, you may be processing time cards for athletes, and tomorrow, twice as many or all those athletes may suddenly be salaried.
The industry usually doesn’t change as quickly at the professional level as it does at the amateur or semi-professional level, but this is because every major sport has player unions and union-negotiated contracts. Still, nothing is preventing a future sports law case from upending those industries, either.
As an HR professional, you should try to stay agile and keep abreast of cases going through the court system. If you have questions, a skilled sports law attorney can help you understand how current legal cases affect your duties.
Keep Up with Each New Sports Law Case and Stay Ahead of Legal Changes
If you’re working in HR in the sports industry, you know how quickly things can change. New rulings can shift the way you manage athletes, contracts, and policies. Some of the most important legal changes come from the biggest lawsuits in the sports world. At the Law Offices of Pearlman, Brown & Wax, LLP, we understand the ins and outs of sports law and are here to help you stay on top of any legal changes that can influence your job and your position. If you have any questions or need guidance, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to support you!