NCAA Faces Potential Billion Dollar Lawsuit Regarding Student-Athlete Compensation

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is facing a lawsuit that could possibly set the organization back a billion dollars.

According to USA Today, two former college students, one who played football and another who ran track, are the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the governing body of about 1,100 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Former Oklahoma State running back, and current Carolina Panther, Chuba Hubbard, and former Auburn track athlete Keira McCarrell are filing the complaint against the NCAA.

Earlier this week, attorneys for the two plaintiffs filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences. In the paperwork filed, they are seeking retroactive damages for thousands of college athletes based on a previous court judgment by a U.S. district court judge in March 2019. That decision stated that basketball and football players were allowed to be given payments for academic achievement in an amount that would be equal to the maximum cash value of awards they could receive for athletic achievement. Based on that explanation, it was determined that the maximum cash value was $5,980.

After the NCAA appealed the decision, the Supreme Court unanimously voted in agreement with the conclusion two years later. This is when the NCAA decided to alter its rules for Division I men’s or women’s basketball players and Bowl Subdivision football players in August 2020. In October 2021, the NCAA allowed colleges and universities to award academic-achievement payments to athletes in any sport after the ruling was released.

The suit states that these student-athletes “did not receive the academic achievement awards that they would have received in a competitive market.” They are seeking triple damages from the NCAA.

The latest case was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California’s Oakland Division. Several lawsuits pertaining to other antitrust suits against the NCAA that were related to college-athlete compensation have been filed there over the past 14 years. In two of those cases before Judge Claudia Wilken, the NCAA were found to be in violation of antitrust law.

The purpose of this litigation is to get a damages award that covers all current and former athletes who competed on a Division I team on or after April 1, 2019 “who would have met the requirements for receiving an Academic Achievement Award under the criteria established by their schools for qualifying for such an Award.”