Supreme Court unanimously backs payments to NCAA student-athletes

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that NCAA limits on the education-related benefits that colleges can offer athletes who play Division I basketball and football can't be enforced.

The former athletes who brought the case argued that the NCAA's rules on education-related compensation violate federal antitrust law designed to promote competition.

The ruling will help determine whether schools decide to offer athletes money in education-related benefits for things such as computers, scholarships, internships and tutoring. It doesn't decide whether students can be paid salaries.

Under current NCAA rules, students can't be paid, and the scholarship money colleges can offer is capped at the cost of attending the school. The NCAA said its rules were necessary to preserve the amateur nature of college athletics.