Jeffrey Kessler Quoted in USA Today’s Review of 2015 Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal Symposium

Winston & Strawn antitrust practice chair and sports law practice co-chair Jeffrey Kessler was quoted in the USA Today article “Status of Student Athletes Again Up for Debate at Villanova Conference.” The article reviews some of the key discussion from the 2015 Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal Symposium held at Villanova University on April 10. Mr. Kessler, the lead attorney in the lawsuit Jenkins v. NCAA which seeks to create an “open market” for major college sports programs in Division I men's basketball and football, participated in one of the event’s panels and shared his views on the case.

Mr. Kessler views major college football and basketball programs as big businesses. As big businesses, he argues they are full subject to antistrust laws, which preclude them from agreeing not to compensate their players. 

“The schools don’t want to pay the money to the athletes because you make more money if you don’t pay your labor,” Mr. Kessler said during the panel discussion. “But it’s illegal, and that’s where we have to go.”

Jenkins v. NCAA was filed in March of 2014 against the NCAA and its five power conferences. Mr. Kessler said he hopes it will come to trial in 2016.

“What I’m seeking is not to require the schools to do anything. What I’m seeking is to empower the schools and the conferences to make their own decisions – to remove the shackles of the NCAA rules, which I believe are unlawful, and allow the University of Texas to decide how it is fair to treat … athlethes who [are] generating all these millions of dollars for the school,” he said.

Mr. Kessler added, “They own their own sports cable television networks. It doesn’t sound like an education business to me. It’s just a business. … They pay their coaches … $8 million, $10 million, higher by far than any university president.”