NCAA Athletes Still Looking for Big Win in Pay for Play Claims

The NCAA fended off another bid to upend its “student-athlete” model this week as a federal appeals court said it doesn’t have to pay college football players.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the PAC-12 conference aren’t employers according to federal or California wage-and-hour law.

The NCAA’s amateurism rules have endured a series of legal challenges under federal wage, labor, and antitrust laws that haven’t succeeded in forcing fundamental change to allow athletes to be paid for their play as if it was work.

The durability of the student-athlete ...