SEC Media Icon Paul Finebaum Predicts ‘The End of the NCAA’ After Supreme Court Ruling

On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the NCAA can no longer attempt to preserve the amateurism of college athletes by limiting educational benefits.

Unlimited benefits tied to education for college athletes enhances their ability to earn compensation, simultaneously stripping the power from the NCAA. According to ESPN contributor and syndicated sports radio host Paul Finebaum, the milestone ruling could mark the end of the NCAA.

“This is the end of the NCAA as we know it,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s Get Up!. “The funeral hasn’t happened yet, the last rites have not been uttered, but it’s over for the NCAA. It won’t happen tomorrow, it won’t happen next week, but the next lawsuit will bury the NCAA.”

When the Supreme Court ruling was announced, Justice Brett Kavanaugh raised eyebrows by hammering the NCAA for its ability to benefit from elite athletes, while restricting those same students from earning fair compensation.

“The NCAA and its member colleges maintain important traditions that have become part of the fabric of America … but those traditions alone cannot justify the NCAA’s decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student-athletes who are not fairly compensated,” wrote. “Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different.”

Finebaum is one of the premier media personalities in college sports, but he’s long been a critic of the NCAA and president Mark Emmert. The NCAA hoped to receive antitrust provision, preventing future lawsuits, but according to Finebaum, the organization has been left without defense.

Watch above via, ESPN