The NCAA added a new legal challenge to its already messy case Thursday. A trio of college athletes have filed a lawsuit against the association and its five most powerful conferences, alleging that rules prohibiting schools from paying athletes violate antitrust laws.
Duke University football player Dwayne Carter, Stanford University football player Nya Harrison, and TCU basketball player Sedona Prince filed a 70-page complaint in federal court for the Northern District of California. The court is the same venue where the NCAA has lost a series of antitrust lawsuits over the past decade. Their lawyers will block the NCAA from enforcing a rule that prohibits “pay-for-play” compensation to players and provide damages for past payments that players would have received had the current rule not been enacted. sought an injunction seeking an injunction.
“It’s time for the NCAA to recognize that its rules that prevent athletes from sharing in the vast amounts of revenue we generate are harming all college athletes,” Carter said in a statement from his attorneys. Ta. “There are hundreds of people involved in NCAA sports, but the only ones who aren’t getting paid are the athletes. I’m proud to stand up to right the injustices for all college athletes. ”
Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman, representing three athletes, successfully sued the NCAA to remove restrictions on academic payments in the Alston case, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2021. They have also recently been given a separate rank. The antitrust lawsuit (House v. NCAA) seeks billions of dollars in damages, alleging that the NCAA harmed former athletes with outdated rules that limited their ability to make money through sponsorship deals.
The lawsuit comes after NCAA President Charlie Baker announced a new proposal that would allow schools to sign NIL contracts directly with players and distribute significant amounts of money for them through an “enhanced education trust fund.” It happened just two days later. Baker’s proposal stops short of allowing schools to pay athletes based on their athletic ability. He said in an interview this week at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum that his own plan would not make athletes employees of the schools.
Baker and other college sports leaders are asking Congress to pass a federal law that would prevent athletes from filing antitrust lawsuits like the one filed this week. He said getting such legislation through Congress would be an important part of implementing a wide range of proposals for the future of college sports.
“I would like to see some exemption from antitrust laws,” Baker said. “What I would like to see is that if the NCAA and the federal government agree that something should and can be a national standard, then we would actually be allowed to have a national standard. .”
Baker’s new proposal was mentioned in a lawsuit filed Thursday. NCAA leaders and their lawyers have argued in past antitrust cases that paying players directly would be devastating to college sports, an academically-first institution. The plaintiffs argued in a new lawsuit that Baker’s proposal is proof that the wealthiest schools can afford to pay their players.
“This action by the NCAA ensures that payments to college athletes are fully compatible with the great business of college sports, and that the NCAA maintains regulations regarding these payments, including limiting payments to ‘educational’ benefits and trust funds.” It shows that the restrictions you are trying to achieve cannot be maintained. justified in the current environment,” the lawsuit states.
The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The House’s pending case based on NIL payments is scheduled to go to trial in January 2025.