In a 99 page decision that is nothing less than groundbreaking, US District Court Judge Claudia Wilken ruled Friday that  NCAA rules unreasonably restrain trade in the market for certain educational and athletic opportunities offered by NCAA Division I schools. In other words, the NCAA has been slapped and slapped hard.

Though this will certainly be appealed, the Court has essentially noted what we all have figured out: Everyone in the NCAA gets to exploit the players for money, except the players themselves and that is by design of the NCAA. Judge Wilken’s ruling allows restrictions on player compensation for university and NCAA use of players’ names and images, but that it could not be less than $5000. Of course, such an amount is peanuts to the major NCAA programs, but it is more than they were giving up before.

Stay tuned for our more in-depth look at this tomorrow, after I have a chance to read the full decision.