NCAA Athlete Wage Case Invites Students to Sue More Colleges

A federal appeals court decision advancing student athletes’ minimum wage claims opens the NCAA and the nation’s colleges up to more lawsuits that could be worth millions, attorneys say.

Players from universities including Cornell, Fordham, and Villanova were allowed to pursue their Fair Labor Standards Act case after a divided US Court of Appeals for the Thirds Circuit panel on July 11 found that they plausibly alleged the NCAA and the schools were their joint employers.

The decision in Johnson v. NCAA—which created a circuit split that could eventually reach the US Supreme Court—signals a distinct shift in courts’ ...