NCAA Faces Student Athletic Award Cash Payments Antitrust Suit

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is facing an antitrust suit that alleges current and former students were deprived of academic awards worth thousands of dollars.

The NCAA allegedly price-fixed the compensation of players to exclude academic achievement awards in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, which forbids activities that restrict trade, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in US District Court for the Northern District of California.

The plaintiffs are Chuba Hubbard, a former Oklahoma State University football player, and Keira McCarrell, a former track and field athlete at the University of Oregon and Auburn University. The defendants also include the Atlantic Coast Conference, The Big Ten, The Big 12 and the Southeastern Conference.

The suit follows a Supreme Court decision in 2021 that upheld an order allowing schools to provide education-related compensation, including academic achievement awards. After the ruling, the NCAA changed its bylaws to allow all Division I college athletes to receive up to $5,980 each year in academic awards.

The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Oklahoma State University in March 2022 announced it would begin issuing the awards, while the University of Oregon began providing awards starting with the 2021–22 academic year, according to the complaint. Auburn began issuing the awards to student athletes in 2022, the complaint said.

Hubbard’s last season at Oklahoma State was in 2020. McCarrell graduated from Auburn in the spring of 2022.

“As a direct result of the NCAA rules prohibiting Oregon and Auburn from offering such payments sooner—rules that have since been determined to violate the antitrust laws—McCarrell was deprived of receiving the Academic Achievement Awards that she would have earned each year that she attended Oregon and the first two years that she attended Auburn,” the complaint says.

The suit seeks to represent all current and former NCAA athletes who competed on a Division I athletic team since April 1, 2019 who would have met the requirements for receiving an Academic Achievement Award.

The suit follows other litigation against the NCAA, including a recent complaint that alleged the athletic organization conspired to avoid paying volunteer coaches who often work more than 40 hours per week.

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and Winston & Strawn LLP represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Hubbard v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, N.D. Cal., No. 4:23-cv-01593, 4/4/23.