The college sports structure in the US is one of the country’s largest, and generates billions of dollars annually. But the most important feature of the college sports leagues go beyond profits as they can drastically influence the public’s perception of a university. The critical nature of this perception and the league’s power to influence it have brought the system of amateurism that has developed in college athletics under legal attack with the NCAA brought up on anti-trust challenges and Northwestern University’s college scholarship players referred to as employees and opening a union.

This CLE course will examine how college sports seeks to evolve over the next decade, anticipated changes in the system and their causes. The course will also explore competing legal theories in anti-trust and labor law through case studies, assess the implications of these issues and how they will impact players, games and the sports institutions as a whole.