I am not making this up.

It was reported two days ago that two Ivy League student athletes, a male and a female it seems, have sued all eight Ivy League schools, asserting a class action on behalf of more than 10,000 of their cohorts, claiming  –  wait for it — wait for it —claiming an agreement among those schools (via action of the Ivy League Council of Presidents)  to not grant Ivy Division 1 athletes an athletic scholarship or other incentives to attend, the injury to two distinct classes being that the cost of education increases and that compensation received by the athletes decreases.

Both named claimants, btw, seemingly did receive need-based financial help from their school (Brown, which is in Rhode Island while the litigation was filed in Connecticut where only Yale resides, for no doubt tactical reasons unknown to this writer).

To be fair, the Sherman Act (enacted I recall in 1890 when college students who might have raised this argument at that time would likely have been caned and then expelled) does prohibit price competition in relevant markets; and it is alleged that there are two markets here: smart kids who want to play Division 1 sports and athletic services provided by those students who are admitted.

To date there has been just one response from the Ivy League, which I find interesting but really not on point: it suggests that athletic scholarships might be taxable income to the students.

Given the intense scrutiny of university discrimination by our current US Supreme Court, it is interesting to speculate what they might do with this claim if it gets that far. Stay tuned (or not if you have bigger fish to fry, but I am going to follow this as it is just so darned interesting).