§ 131.002.Adoption of Rules

One sentence doing something unusual: the rules of each national collegiate athletic association in effect on January 1, 1987, are adopted.

A private organisation’s internal rulebook becomes state law. That is a striking piece of legislation, and it is what the causes of action in the following sections are built on — they impose liability for violating "a rule of a national collegiate athletic association adopted by this chapter".

The date freezes the rules. What is adopted is the rulebook as it stood on January 1, 1987 — not as amended since.

That choice avoids a constitutional problem and creates a practical one. Adopting a private body’s rules as they may be amended would delegate lawmaking to that body, which a legislature cannot do. Freezing them at a date avoids the objection.

The practical consequence is that the chapter refers to a rulebook nearly four decades old. The NCAA has rewritten its rules many times since, and the current regime — including everything about athlete compensation — bears little resemblance to the 1987 text.

The defences provision addresses that directly, making it a defence that the rule was not a current rule or had been substantially changed.

So the two sections work together: liability attaches only to a 1987 rule that is still substantially the rule today. The chapter is narrower than the adoption provision alone suggests.