'Student' Athletes Revisited

Abstract

This essay considers a couple of developments in 2014 that dealt, directly or indirectly, with taxation issues affecting college athletics: (1) a decision by a federal district judge, in O’Bannon v. NCAA, that the antitrust laws do not permit the National Collegiate Athletic Association to forbid colleges from compensating their athletes for use of the athletes’ images; and (2) a letter by the IRS Commissioner on the tax effects of a decision by a National Labor Relations Board regional director, who had concluded that football players at Northwestern University are employees of the university for labor law purposes.

Keywords: Student athlete, taxation of college athletics, O’Bannon v. NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association

JEL Classification: K34