Court denies NCAA request to appeal to disallow class-action status on a pair of lawsuits
By Nick Cole
Published:
The NCAA and 11 supporting conferences were disappointed by a court decision on Monday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the NCAA’s request to appeal a district judge’s decision to assign class-action status to a pair of lawsuits that deal with the compensation limits for student-athletes, according to USA Today.
According to USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz, the original ruling was made back in December:
In early December, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken decided to allow the cases to proceed as class actions, rejecting the NCAA’s and the conferences’ argument that lifting the limits would result in star athletes getting much greater compensation than they can now while scholarship and playing opportunities for other athletes would be eliminated because schools would need ways to find the money to pay the stars.
Barring another appeal, this means that the lawsuits, one of which aims for compensation to players for the difference between the value of the athletic scholarship provided by schools and the total cost of attending those schools, will be allowed to move forward as a class-action filing.
Not only could this potentially benefit players that have potentially suffered from the discrepancy in those two numbers in the past, but it is also another potential step forward for the movement to increase the overall compensation for players in the future.
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
