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I follow Gabe Feldman among others for NCAA legal stuff. by No Right Turn on Red

He called it a big win and that there was a lot in there for the NCAA to like.

[I agree completely with you that the NCAA should just let kids profit off their name or image, though that wasn't really the issue at stake here.]

Schools can give their students laptops and tablets right now, not even on an issue and retrieval basis, per NCAA rules and the Student Assistance Fund. They can also provide other expendable supplies specific to academic work, as well as expenses related to program testing (prep courses, test fees, etc.) and other educational or career development (seminar, in-person interview, etc.). There's currently a lot of wiggle room for institutions to provide academic and career-related expenses.

There were a few notable items in the ruling not currently permitted, like being able to promise to pay for a kid's grad school after they finish their sports career there. The ability to pay for necessary coursework at other schools was nearly passed last year by the NCAA, so that probably won't be too hard. The academic and/or graduation awards equal to athletic awards will be interesting. Is a school going to tell a kid, "Hey, congrats on getting a 3.0 this year, here's a $50 gift card"?

I think the key component of the decision that makes it a win for the NCAA is that she draws a clear line of demarcation between college and pro amateurs, drawing a distinction between education-related expenses (NCAA cannot restrict) and unlimited cash payments unrelated to education (NCAA can continue to restrict). The NCAA can continue to use cost of attendance, which is set by each school's financial aid office following federal law, to cap non-education related expenses. The ruling allows the NCAA to define education related expenses and for conferences individually to restrict such expenses in a more restrictive manner if they choose to do so. Further, this ruling does not appear to affect current scholarship limits.

There are two big knocks against the NCAA in this decision. First, yet another ruling saying they were violating antitrust laws. At some point, that may bite them down the road in another case and is just bad optics. Second, and probably more importantly, Judge Wilken noted that the NCAA has no viable definition of amateurism or a consistent clear way of differentiating between permissible and impermissible forms of “compensation." That's a more recent issue, actually, due in large part to all the concessions the NCAA has made toward student-athletes (paying for parents to fly to the Final Four, providing awards for athletic achievement, loss of value insurance, providing mental health professionals or other consultants, etc.). For the most part, these are all good things, whether they help their kids with burdensome expenses or if it's just the right thing to do, but these small things add up and slowly chip away at a defense or suggestion that the NCAA has a hard line stance between amateur and professional.