The Contest for Collegiate NIL Rights: How the Protect the Ball Act May Insulate the NCAA

By Alex G. Anderson, of Pillsbury The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has historically been afforded a wide berth to implement and enforce its rules under the auspices of protecting the “revered tradition of amateurism” in college athletics. For decades, it relied on this principle as a means to enforce its prohibition on college athletes receiving compensation when faced with legal challenges and public calls for reform. The landscape began to shift in 2016 when t