After 10 years of antitrust litigation against the NCAA, including two bench trials, Judge Claudia Wilken has twice found that the NCAA is unlawfully conspiring to suppress compensation of student-athletes who play at the highest level of college football and men’s and women’s basketball. (Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, ECF No. 1162, (March 8, 2019), In re National Collegiate Athletic Association Athletic Grant-in-Aid Cap Antitrust Litigation, 14-md-02541 CW (N.D. Cal.))

Wilken’s most recent decision, the March 8 Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, thoroughly takes down the NCAA’s unlawful conduct, rejecting the NCAA’s testimonials to “amateurism” as hollow, self-serving, unsupported by the evidence, and disconnected from reality. In fact, as page after page takes the NCAA to task for the foolishness and inconsistency of its arguments, something like anticipation starts to take hold.