The ethics of tax-deductible contributions to colleges and universities: should these contributions support college athletics, players, and coaches?

Purpose The US Supreme Court ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cannot limit education-related benefits that colleges provide student-athletes, including the ability to earn money from their name, image and likeness (National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, 2021). Supporters of collegiate athletics then began establishing organizations to support NIL activities and to pay student-athletes. This paper aims to examine the ethical and legal implications of this. Design/methodology/approach Because this is a practitioner/viewpoint paper, and because this paper reviews the case law regarding this topic as well as the ethical implications of the topic, the design/methodology/approach followed here is a legal and ethical analysis of the topic. Findings The history of these collectives, and examining the collectives through the lens of charitable giving as encouraged by the IRS, including charitable giving within an educational setting, is presented. The paper also discusses the interplay between relevant NCAA rules and IRS regulations, with a description of how universities are responding. Finally, the cases that apply to this situation are reviewed, with a focus on the ethical and legal implications of this practice and the paper concludes with questions regarding the ethics of this practice, as well as what the future holds for these collectives. Originality/value This issue is timely and topical because it is currently being debated, and the paper is original in that the ethical dimensions of this topic are considered, including a discussion regarding how this issue could be resolved.