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NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSN. v. ALSTON 

Opinion of the Court 

“[n]o student shall represent a College or University in any 
intercollegiate game or contest who is paid or receives, di-
rectly or indirectly, any money, or financial concession.”  In-
tercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States Con-
stitution By-Laws, Art. VII, §3 (1906); see also Proceedings
of the Eleventh Annual Convention of the National Colle-
giate Athletic Association, Dec. 28, 1916, p. 34.

Reality did not always match aspiration.  More than two 
decades later, the Carnegie Foundation produced a report
on college athletics that found them still “sodden with the 
commercial and the material and the vested interests that 
these forces have created.”  H. Savage, The Carnegie Foun-
dation for the Advancement of Teaching, American College 
Athletics Bull. 23, p. 310 (1929).  Schools across the country 
sought to leverage sports to bring in revenue, attract atten-
tion, boost enrollment, and raise money from alumni.  The 
University  of  California’s  athletic  revenue  was  over
$480,000,  while  Harvard’s  football  revenue  alone  came  in 
at $429,000.  Id., at 87.  College football was “not a student’s
game”; it was an “organized commercial enterprise” featur-
ing athletes with “years of training,” “professional coaches,” 
and competitions that were “highly profitable.”  Id., at viii. 
The commercialism extended to the market for student-
athletes.  Seeking the best players, many schools actively 
participated in a system “under which boys are offered pe-
cuniary  and  other  inducements  to  enter  a  particular  col-
lege.”  Id., at xiv–xv.  One coach estimated that a rival team 
“spent over $200,000 a year on players.”  Zimbalist 9.  In 
1939,  freshmen  at  the  University  of  Pittsburgh  went  on
strike  because  upperclassmen  were  reportedly  earning 
more money.  Crabb, The Amateurism Myth: A Case for a
New Tradition, 28 Stan. L. & Pol’y Rev. 181, 190 (2017).  In 
the 1940s, Hugh McElhenny, a halfback at the University 
of  Washington,  “became  known  as  the  first  college  player 
‘ever to take a cut in salary to play pro football.’ ”  Zimbalist 
22–23.  He  reportedly  said:  “ ‘[A]  wealthy  guy  puts  big