On July 11, in Johnson v. NCAA, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit entered the thorny world of compensation for college athletes, forcefully rejecting the argument that the “amateur status” of college athletes categorically removes them from the ambit of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As the first court of appeals to reach this result, the opinion has rightly received substantial ink. Yet the opinion is noteworthy beyond the realm of college athletics for its expansive discussion of the FLSA.

The Johnson plaintiffs, Division I college athletes, asserted claims under the FLSA against the NCAA and its member colleges for alleged failure to pay minimum wage. Certain plaintiffs also advanced state law claims under Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut wage-and-hour statutes as well as common law claims for unjust enrichment. The defendants moved to dismiss, arguing that “athletes cannot be employees as a matter of law and therefore had failed to state a claim.”