The NCAA is facing yet another lawsuit, this time from three college athletes who claim the organization is illegally preventing more than 400 Division III schools from offering athletic scholarships.
The athletes, one current and two former, filed a proposed class-action lawsuit Friday in federal court in Los Angeles, alleging that the NCAA’s ban on athletic scholarships at Division III schools violates federal antitrust laws.
According to Reuters, the lawsuit claims the NCAA is essentially fixing the value of Division III athletes’ labor at zero. That’s right. Zero.
Meanwhile, some D-III schools reportedly have larger athletic budgets than those of colleges competing at higher levels.
College Athletes Claim NCAA Is Illegally Preventing Them From Receiving Scholarships
The three athletes behind the lawsuit are Jackson Hale, a senior defensive back at Pacific Lutheran University; Connor Printz, a former basketball player at Claremont McKenna College; and Chris Jennings, who competed in swimming and lacrosse at the University of Lynchburg.
According to Sportico, Printz quit playing basketball during the 2023-24 season after accumulating substantial student loan debt while facing nearly $80,000 in annual tuition, room and board. He claims that even a partial athletic scholarship would have been enough to keep him playing.
“The NCAA has engaged in an ongoing conspiracy to fix the price of Division III athletic labor at zero by prohibiting every member of Division III, the NCAA’s largest division at more than 400 schools, from offering a single penny of athletic scholarship,” the complaint reads.
Currently, more than 175,000 Division III athletes can receive academic scholarships and financial aid based on financial need, but colleges cannot award scholarships based on athletic ability or performance. This restriction applies to more than 400 institutions, including MIT, Johns Hopkins, Caltech, Williams College, and the University of Chicago.
NCAA Division III Bylaw 15.01.3, which prohibits member schools from providing financial aid based on athletic leadership, skill, participation, or performance, is at the heart of the complaint. According to NCAA.org, a school “must not give financial aid to any student on the basis of athletics leadership, skill, participation or performance.”
The lawsuit argues that schools, not the NCAA, should decide whether to give scholarships.
The NCAA Could Be Facing Another Expensive Legal Battle
The NCAA has long maintained that not awarding athletic scholarships is a “core principle” of Division III athletics. It argues that “athletics participation should not be financially rewarded in the same way as academic achievement.”
The plaintiffs, however, point to the Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling in NCAA v. Alston, which determined that certain NCAA restrictions on athlete benefits were subject to antitrust scrutiny.
A similar lawsuit challenging the Division III scholarship rule was dismissed in 2013. This time, however, the legal landscape surrounding college athletics has changed considerably.
Between name, image and likeness deals, revenue sharing and numerous other legal challenges, the NCAA has already been forced to abandon several longstanding restrictions. Now, another one of its oldest rules could be on the chopping block. In this case, the athletes are seeking monetary damages for other affected athletes and a court order eliminating the scholarship ban.