## Facts

- The NCAA is an unincorporated association of roughly 1,200 colleges and universities; members agree to follow and enforce NCAA rules.
- The NCAA’s Postbaccalaureate Bylaw generally permitted a postgraduate student-athlete to compete only at the institution that awarded the athlete’s undergraduate degree.
- Renee M. Smith played NCAA volleyball at St. Bonaventure University for the 1991–1992 and 1992–1993 seasons and then graduated.
- Smith enrolled in postgraduate programs at Hofstra University and later the University of Pittsburgh and sought to play volleyball at those institutions.
- The NCAA declared Smith ineligible under the bylaw and denied waiver requests submitted by Hofstra and Pittsburgh.
- Smith sued alleging sex discrimination under Title IX, asserting the NCAA granted more eligibility waivers to male than female postgraduate athletes.
- The district court dismissed for failure to allege the NCAA was a Title IX “recipient” of federal financial assistance and denied leave to amend as moot.
- The Third Circuit reversed, holding NCAA’s receipt of dues from federally funded member institutions sufficed to bring it within Title IX.

## Issues

1. Whether an organization becomes a Title IX “recipient” of federal financial assistance solely because it receives dues from member institutions that receive federal funds.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court unanimously held that dues payments from federally funded member institutions, by themselves, do not make the NCAA a Title IX recipient.
- The Court rejected the Third Circuit’s dues-based theory as inconsistent with Title IX’s statutory and regulatory scheme and prior decisions.
- The Court vacated the Third Circuit’s judgment and remanded for consideration of alternative theories for applying Title IX to the NCAA that had not been addressed.

## Legal Principles

- Title IX applies to an “education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” and is directed at entities that receive federal aid, not those that merely benefit economically from recipients.
- Payments made in ordinary commerce (including membership dues paid in exchange for services and benefits) are not “federal financial assistance” to the payee solely because the payer receives federal funds.
- A Title IX “recipient” requires a funding relationship contemplated by the statute and regulations (directly or through another recipient), not a remote financial connection based only on dealings with funded institutions.
- The Court’s holding was limited to the dues theory and did not decide whether other alleged connections (such as direct federal funding or operation of a federally assisted educational program or activity) could subject the NCAA to Title IX.

## Conclusion

The Court held that the NCAA is not subject to Title IX solely because it receives dues from federally funded member schools, vacated the contrary appellate ruling, and remanded for further proceedings on other potential bases for Title IX coverage.


National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n v. Smith, 525 U.S. 459 (1999)