(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stay a recent appeals court decision that said the National Collegiate Athletic Association cannot limit compensation related to education for college basketball and football players.

Justice Elena Kagan denied a petition filed last week by the NCAA and its lawyers at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr claiming the May ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would inflict "profound, irreparable harm on the important national institution of intercollegiate athletics."

Kagan is assigned stay petitions arising out of 9th Circuit cases.

The NCAA had moved for the stay pending the outcome of its petition for certiorari, which it has not yet filed.

The 9th Circuit in its decision had agreed with a group of former NCAA football and basketball players that the association's limits on non-cash compensation related to education, such as computers, science equipment and graduate school tuition, amounted to an illegal market restriction in violation of the federal Sherman Act.

Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, who represents the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did the NCAA and its lead lawyer, Seth Waxman of Wilmer Cutler.

The case began with a series of lawsuits filed by college athletes in 2014 and 2015, which were consolidated in San Francisco federal court.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken last year rejected the NCAA's argument that its limits on compensation were needed to preserve the amateur character of college sports and competition in the market between amateur and professional sports.

The 9th Circuit affirmed in May, saying the limits "did nothing to foster or preserve consumer demand."

The case is NCAA v. Alston, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 20A24.

For the players: Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro

For NCAA: Seth Waxman of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr