Reduced to an Inept Defendant: The Death of the NCAA

NCAA’s Obituary

The Wake: A viewing will be held at various courtrooms throughout the United States.

The Repass: Immediately following interment, the family invites you to join them for a repass being held at all Division I institutions.

SUGAR GROVE, IL - MAY 29: A general view of the NCAA logo during the 2017 Division I Men's Golf Championships on May 29, 2017 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Icon Sportswire)

The National Collegiate Athletic Association died in the halls of a federal courthouse in Oakland, California, on June 6, 2025. At the age of 119, the NCAA finally succumbed to a series of injuries sustained over four decades of antitrust litigation. NCAA v. Board of Regents (1984, the first wound), O'Bannon (2015), Alston (2021, the 9-0 verdict and Kavanaugh's heart-felt eulogy), NIL (July 1, 2021), and the House settlement (2025). A man named Sherman was seen wielding the murder weapon.

The immediate cause-of-death was the stroke of Judge Claudia Wilken’s pen approving the House settlement; but the underlying terminal condition was self-inflicted, driven by stubbornness and greed. It’s survived by the athletes it spent a century insisting were amateurs while commercializing their every move.

The body has not yet been buried; it continues to appear as a defendant—resembling more of a corpse twitching from time to time rather than a competent body. The authority has gone, along with its traveling companion: respect.

Predeceased by: the student-athlete

The NCAA was preceded in death by the "student-athlete," its own child. A parent should never be forced to bury its own child. This child, the “student-athlete,” was born in 1955, and passed in 2021. Just as the parent died in a courtroom, the child, too, was spawned in one. Walter Byers, NCAA’s first executive director, conceived the student-athlete as a legal defense to a workers’ comp claim by a widow of a college football player. If that athlete was considered a student first, the NCAA could avoid paying the widow for the medical bills of his on-field death. It worked. The NCAA’s legally-birthed child fought valiantly, defeating every claim brought to its father’s door for the next seventy years. Even though Byers disowned it before his own death in 2015, calling the whole arrangement a "money-laundering scheme," the term never left the NCAA’s side. Each new executive director became its new master.

Predeceased by: amateurism

The NCAA is also predeceased by amateurism, the family religion, to which the NCAA remained devoted long after the congregation had left. It was a convenient, if unquestioned, faith; it demanded all athletes sacrifice themselves on its behalf, while allowing the institutions and coaches to collect its bountiful offerings. O’Bannon was the first heretic. Then came the heathen, Alston. Finally, a Supreme Court full of dissidents declined to take the NCAA’s communion. And Kavanaugh read the last rites in a concurrence the NCAA has still yet to fully heed. Amateurism was pronounced dead on July 1, 2021, though it had been unresponsive for years, if not decades. The NCAA was seen at amatuerism's funeral, but heeded nothing. And it has been rumored that there are a few—here and there—who still believe in the dead religion; they can be heard speaking in tongues.

Predeceased by: the transfer rule

Also preceded in death is the rule that made a young person sit still for a year as the price of unfaithfulness. A coach could leave for more money on a Sunday and coach a rival by the following Saturday. The athlete who followed him was made to wait, in silence, on the bench, to be taught the value of loyalty by an institution that practiced none. No one who was ever restricted by the rule or made to remain devoted to a toxic program sent flowers.

In a very real sense, the NCAA outkicked its coverage. It flew faster than its guardian angel could fly—that being amateurism and the student-athlete defense. Those are the concepts it’s dragging along with it to the grave. But below are the instruments that remain standing, over the NCAA’s place of rest.

Survived by: the man who killed it

The NCAA is survived, first, by the man who killed it. Antitrust law inherits the entire estate. Every rule of college sports now runs through the Sherman Act, an 1890 statute that has outlived every empire it was written to discipline. Senator John Sherman came from a family that knew how to burn an institution to the ground; his older brother, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, famously burned Atlanta in 1864 during the Civil War.

The younger Sherman worked slower. It took him forty years to finish the NCAA, from the broadcast case in 1984, to the settlement in 2025. The murderer did not flee the scene. He moved into the house.

(The family has since put hits on his head—the SCORE Act, the Protect College Sports Act, each one an attempt on Sherman's life. They're nothing more than a dying grasp, begging Congress for something the courts refused them. So far, Sherman walks free.)

Survived by: the heirs

Survived by the heirs (SEC and Big Ten), who—it should be noted—didn’t stick around for the reading of the will. The power conferences started dividing up their share of the estate while the body was still warm. Their underhanded goal was exposed by an unlikely pair of their members, Alabama and Auburn. They set the Iron Bowl aside long enough to pen a letter opposing the Protect College Sports Act. At first glance, it appears they want to protect Sherman. But take a closer look. The complaint wasn’t that the athletes were left exposed. The complaint was that the schools were. They want more protection from Sherman; they, too, want him gone. If the rivals are uniting, then something must be amiss.

Survived by: March Madness

The NCAA is survived by its heart, March Madness. The brain may be gone, but the heart beats every spring. Powered by a billion dollars, it’ll be a difficult decision to pull the plug.

Survived by: Title IX

Survived by Title IX, the NCAA's middle child—present at every family gathering, respected by almost no one. She was promised her fair share back in 1972. She has yet to realize that share. And when she raises the issue, it often falls on deaf ears. Let’s see if the Ninth Circuit will finally listen. If history teaches us anything, she’ll inherit the paperwork and little else. She may be the quiet one. But the quiet ones keep receipts.

Survived by: the agents

Survived by the agents, the relations no one knew the NCAA had. They hurriedly brushed passed the SEC and Big Ten as they were leaving the reading of the will. Distant cousins with fresh business cards and a percentage already in mind. Some are lawyers. Some are certified. And some just have a new brand of snake oil. Estates this large typically grow a ring of people who loved the deceased suddenly. This case is no different.

Survived by: the athletes

The NCAA is survived, above all, by the athletes—the only heirs who earned the inheritance. For a century they were told the scholarship was the ceiling and gratitude was the rent. Now the seventeen-year-old signs a mutually beneficial agreement instead of a lopsided, lifelong vow, keeps his own name, sells his own face, transfers without penance, and takes a share of the revenue he brings about. Call it a well-earned glow-up. The child the family spent a hundred years overlooking turned out to be the one it couldn’t live without—and the one it couldn’t keep. Fly free, younglings (but only for about five years).

Services:

There will be no funeral. The family cannot agree on how to dispose of the remains. The College Sports Commission now has guardianship over the NCAA, and Judge Claudia Wilken will keep watch over the body for the next ten years. All inquiries should be directed to the CSC. If unsatisfied with the CSC, seek answers from the nearest judge. The NCAA remains on life support in order to serve as your devoted defendant.

In lieu of flowers, the NCAA respectfully requests that you make a donation to their legal fund, in the name of amateurism.

Standing at the NCAA’s tomb, the epitaph reads:

THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

Born in 1906. Laid to rest in 2025.

Here lies the NCAA.

Granted longevity by its student-athlete defense.

Amateurism was its alibi; no one believed it.