Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-512_gfbh.pdf
Page Number: 9

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

bucks  under  my  pillow  every  time  I  score  a  touchdown. 
Hell, I can’t afford to graduate.’ ”  Id., at 211, n. 17.  In 1946, 
a commentator offered this view:  “[W]hen it comes to chi-
canery,  double-dealing,  and  general  undercover  work  be-
hind the scenes, big-time college football is in a class by it-
self.”  Woodward, Is College Football on the Level?, Sport, 
Nov. 1946, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 35. 

In 1948, the NCAA sought to do more than admonish.  It 
adopted  the  “Sanity  Code.”  Colleges  Adopt  the  ‘Sanity 
Code’  To  Govern  Sports,  N. Y.  Times,  Jan.  11,  1948,  p. 1,
col. 1.  The code reiterated the NCAA’s opposition to “prom-
ised pay in any form.”  Hearings before the Subcommittee 
on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 95th Congress, 2d Sess.,
pt.  2,  p.  1094  (1978).  But  for  the  first  time  the  code  also 
authorized colleges and universities to pay athletes’ tuition. 
Ibid.  And  it  created  a  new  enforcement  mechanism— 
providing  for  the  “suspension  or  expulsion”  of  “proven  of-
fenders.”  Colleges  Adopt  ‘Sanity  Code,’  N. Y.  Times,  p. 1, 
col. 1.  To some, these changes sought to substitute a con-
sistent,  above-board  compensation  system  for  the  varying 
under-the-table schemes that had long proliferated.  To oth-
ers, the code marked “the beginning of the NCAA behaving 
as an effective cartel,” by enabling its member schools to set 
and enforce “rules that limit the price they have to pay for
their inputs (mainly the ‘student-athletes’).”  Zimbalist 10. 
The  rules  regarding  student-athlete  compensation  have
evolved ever since.  In 1956, the NCAA expanded the scope
of allowable payments to include room, board, books, fees, 
and “cash for incidental expenses such as laundry.”  In re 
National  Collegiate  Athletic  Assn.  Athletic  Grant-in-Aid 
Cap Antitrust Litig., 375 F. Supp. 3d 1058, 1063 (ND Cal.
2019) (hereinafter D. Ct. Op.).  In 1974, the NCAA began
permitting paid professionals in one sport to compete on an
amateur basis in another.  Brief for Historians as Amici Cu-