Unfair Treatment: NCAA Faces Lawsuit Alleging Illegal Denial of Payments to Thousands of Student-Athletes

Two former student-athletes sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association on April 4th on behalf of a class of plaintiffs, alleging that the organization violated antitrust law by denying them education-related payments. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, seeks damages for back pay after a related Supreme Court decision [1]. Also named as defendants in the suit are members of the Power 5 Conference: The Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, ACC, and Big-12.

In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA could not prevent schools from awarding student-athletes academic achievement awards of up to $5,980 per year [2]. Chuba Hubbard and Keira McCarrell—the named plaintiffs in the new lawsuit who competed before the Supreme Court’s decision—argue that they and thousands of others “did not receive the academic achievement awards that they would have received in a competitive market” [1].

This new lawsuit comes amid several years of public outcry and litigation surrounding the NCAA’s treatment of student-athletes. Another lawsuit alleges that student-athletes should be compensated as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act [3]. A third suit surrounds the NCAA’s policies surrounding students monetizing their name, image, and likeness (NIL) [4].

If courts rule against the NCAA in the new lawsuit, lawyers for the plaintiffs have suggested that at least 5,000 and as many as 20,000 student-athletes could be eligible for retroactive compensation [4]. The flurry of lawsuits and complaints against the NCAA are reflective of changing public opinion around how the organization treats student-athletes as profits from college sports have ballooned to billions of dollars a year.

Many student-athletes, especially those who compete in Division 1 athletics, face demanding practice and competition schedules in addition to the normal requirements of college students. Further, for decades those students were denied any financial compensation outside of scholarships. This is despite well-known athletes earning revenue for the NCAA orders of magnitude larger than the value of those scholarships [1]. If the new lawsuits are ultimately successful, the landscape would shift and many of the thousands of talented student-athletes could finally start to receive more fair compensation for their effort and accomplishments.