What's Really to Come From the NCAA's Student-Athlete Agent Announcement?

It’s been 54 years since the NCAA’s first executive director, Walter Byers, coined the term “student-athlete.” The term was invented for litigation purposes: to help universities defend against workers’ compensation claims brought by students who were seriously injured in the course of playing a sport. These injured students argued that, in light of their substantial energies on behalf of their universities and athletic programs, they were eligible to receive the same kinds of workers’ compensation insurance policies that university employees enjoyed. The term “student-athlete” was designed to rebut this line of reasoning and distinguish college athletes as non-employees. Colleges typically won related lawsuits, and injured student athletes were deemed ineligible for workers’ comp.

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