The NCAA was presented with a fresh new legal hurdle on Thursday. A group of three college athletes filed a lawsuit against the association and five of its most powerful athletic conferences alleging that rules prohibiting institutions from paying their athletes violate antitrust law.
The three athletes: Dewayne Carter, a football player at Duke, Nya Harrison, a Stanford soccer player, and Sedona Prince, a TCU basketball player filed a joint comprehensive 70-page complaint in the federal court of the Northern District of California.
The NCAA has had numerous rendezvous with antitrust claims over the last 10 years. The lawyers representing the three athletes, Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman, have petitioned for an injunction, aiming to stop the NCAA from placing regulations restricting compensation under the “pay for play” model. The lawsuit seeks damages for payments the athletes would have received if the existing rules weren’t in effect.
“It’s time for the NCAA to recognize that the rules prohibiting athletes from sharing in the massive revenues we help to generate are harming all college athletes,” Carter said in a statement provided by his lawyers to ESPN. “There are hundreds of people involved in NCAA sports but the only ones who cannot be paid are the athletes; I’m proud to stand up for all college athletes to correct that injustice.”
Kessler and Berman were successful over the NCAA in the past with the Alston case, removing any restrictions on academic-related payments in 2021. The duo was also granted class status in (House v. NCAA), another antitrust case seeking billions because the NCAA cost former athletes due to old rules that restricted them from monetizing from endorsement deals.
The legal action follows closely on the heels of a recent announcement by NCAA President Charlie Baker. In his proposal, schools would be permitted to engage in NIL agreements directly with athletes, sharing substantial funds through an “enhanced educational trust fund.”
Notably, this initiative does not extend to compensating athletes for their on-field performances. Baker clarified in an interview at this week’s Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum that the proposed plan is designed to avoid classifying athletes as employees of their respective schools.
Baker and other leaders in college sports are urging Congress to create a federal law. This law would discourage athletes from filing antitrust lawsuits, like the recent case. Baker emphasizes that having such a law is essential for moving forward with his broader plan for the future of college sports.
“I want a little antitrust exemption,” Baker told ESPN. “I just want something where if the NCAA and the federal government agree that something should be and can be a national standard, that we are allowed to have a national standard.”
