294
Opinion of the Court
in which such organizations had uniformly been held to be acting under color of state law.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed. 180 F. 3d 758 (1999). It recognized that there is no single test to identify state actions and state actors but applied three criteria derived from Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U. S. 991 (1982), Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U. S. 922 (1982), and Rendell-Baker v. Kohn, 457 U. S. 830 (1982), and found no state action under any of them. It said the District Court was mistaken in seeing a symbiotic relationship between the State and the Association, it emphasized that the Association was neither engaging in a traditional and exclusive public function nor responding to state compulsion, and it gave short shrift to the language from Tarkanian on which the District Court relied. Rehearing en banc was later denied over the dissent of two judges, who criticized the panel decision for creating a conflict among state and federal courts, for being inconsistent with Tarkanian, and for lacking support in the "functional" analysis of private activity required by West v. Atkins, 487 U. S. 42 (1988), for assessing the significance of cooperation between public officials and a private actor. 190 F. 3d 705 (CA6 1999) (Merritt, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc).
We granted certiorari, 528 U. S. 1153 (2000), to resolve the conflict 1 and now reverse.
1 A number of other courts have held statewide athletic associations to be state actors. Griffin High School v. Illinois High School Assn., 822 F. 2d 671, 674 (CA7 1987); Clark v. Arizona Interscholastic Assn., 695 F. 2d 1126, 1128 (CA9 1982), cert. denied, 464 U. S. 818 (1983); In re United States ex rel. Missouri State High School Activities Assn., 682 F. 2d 147, 151 (CA8 1982); Louisiana High School Athletic Assn. v. St. Augustine High School, 396 F. 2d 224, 227-228 (CA5 1968); Oklahoma High School Athletic Assn. v. Bray, 321 F. 2d 269, 272-273 (CA10 1963); Indiana High School Athletic Assn. v. Carlberg, 694 N. E. 2d 222, 229 (Ind. 1997); Mississippi High School Activities Assn., Inc. v. Coleman, 631 So. 2d 768, 774- 775 (Miss. 1994); Kleczek v. Rhode Island Interscholastic League, Inc., 612 A. 2d 734, 736 (R. I. 1992); see also Moreland v. Western Penn. Inter-
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