in Economics from AAI
Dr. Daniel Rascher of the University of San Francisco and OSKR and Dr. Roger Noll of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research each served as plaintiff’s experts, supported by OSKR, in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston. The case was won at trial, was won on appeal to the 9th Circuit, and was won again on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Leading labor economist, the late Dr. Edward Lazear of Stanford University, also served as plaintiff’s expert in the case and was supported by Victoria Lazear.
The courts cited testimony by all three economists in its review of evidence that supported the Plaintiff’s claim that the NCAA possessed market power and that its conduct was having anticompetitive effects. Dr. Lazear was cited for the proposition that “In a market free of the challenged restraints, competition among schools would increase in terms of the compensation they would offer to recruits, and student-athlete compensation would be higher as a result. Student-athletes would receive offers that would more closely match the value of their athletic services.”
Dr. Rascher was cited for the proposition that “Defendants are able to artificially compress and limit student athlete compensation… because they possess monopsony power in the relevant market.” Both Dr. Rascher and Dr. Noll provided demand analyses that were found to “demonstrate that the NCAA has loosened its restrictions on above-COA, education-related benefits since O’Bannon without adversely affecting consumer demand.”
NCAA v. Aston is lauded as the most important sports economics case of the decade, in which the economic
testimony was crucial. The result will likely reverberate for decades to come, much as the last NCAA case (Board of Regents, 1984) has done. The litigation work by Drs. Rascher, Noll, and Lazear made the economic case compellingly. Current OSKR team members, led by Andy Schwarz, include Maxine Brown, Johnny Chau, Chris Groves, Chloe Kidder, David Sanders, Eric Schiff, Andrey Tselikov, and Ratanak Uch.