U.S. Supreme Court takes up NCAA appeal over benefit limits for college athletes

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a bid by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to defend its limits on education-related compensation for college basketball and football players.

The justices took up an appeal by the NCAA, the major governing body for U.S. intercollegiate sports, of a May decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that deemed the organization's rules anticompetitive under a federal law called the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The justices also agreed to hear a related appeal brought by major college sports conferences, including all of the big-money so-called Power Five conferences: the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 Conference and Pac-12 Conference.