t challenged the rule and the U.S. District Court agreed by overturning the USFL rule on antitrust grounds. The Judge found that the rule constituted a group boycott and was a per se violation of the Sherman Act. Player draft rules provide a scheme that is beneficial to owners in the sense of allowing them to collude to keep salaries low by monopoly control over signings. It may promote a more equal distribution of talent among teams because teams draft in reverse order of their place in league standings the year before. But it penalizes players for being talented because they best go to the least successful teams. In contrast to the NFL draft, the USFL draft allowed for territorial draft choices so that players could be retained in the regions where they played their college careers.The case of Reynolds v. NFL indicated that there still needs to be further judicial examination of player mobility under collective bargaining agreements. In Reynolds, the Eighth Circuit court considered the allegation that the Mackey agreement was more restrictive the Rozelle Rule. Reynolds indicates a preference for allowing the labor exemption on agreements negotiated during antitrust litigation, but it leaves the possibility of a case-by-case examination of the nature and effects of certain practices and procedures.Another case concerning the National Basketball Association also applied the nonstatutory labor exemption in order to protect the league from the reach of the Sherman Act. In Wood v. National Basketball Association a promising college draftee failed to convince the court that the collective bargaining agreement should not insulate the NBA from the antitrust laws when the affected player was not a party to the earlier agreement. The Second Circuit court ruled that player associations reach agreements with league officials on behalf of all existing and future players. The court did not grant Woods claim for relief because there was ...
