Historical analysis reveals legal and economic drivers accelerating the decline of amateurism in college athletics, highlighting growing pressures toward athlete compensation and employment status.
Ronald Smith concluded his historical account of the rise of amateurism in college athletics in 2010. However, the changes that have occurred in college athletics after 2010 have posed the greatest threat to amateurism. This study provides a historical account of major NCAA and legal changes after 2010, as well as identifies new and preexisting trends that lead to the decline of amateurism. The historical analysis shows that consistent themes such as commercialization, revenue maximization, institutional inconsistency, and reactive governance have contributed to the decline of amateurism for many years. However, new themes hindering amateurism since 2010 include the expansion of athlete compensation, market-based athlete empowerment, Title IX challenges, labor rights framing, the employment status debate, and legal and external political pressure.
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Ashton Lyn Wooten (2026) studied this question.
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