CLARKSBURG — A group of state attorneys general, including West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey, has filed a lawsuit against challenging the NCAA's Transfer Eligibility Rule.
The lawsuit, which was filed December 7 in federal court in Clarksburg, comes on the heels of the NCAA’s decision to deny RaeQuan Battle a transfer waiver so he can play basketball for West Virginia University.
The lawsuit alleges the NCAA rule violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
Morrisey
“The NCAA’s transfer policy, for far too long, has been flawed," Morrisey said in a press release about the filing. "The Association has failed to maintain a consistent and defensible transfer rule.
In October, the NCAA denied Battle’s waiver for immediate eligibility, which he needed because he's already transferred as an undergraduate student-athlete. The 6-foot-5 wing played two seasons at Washington before moving to Montana State for two more seasons. Battle, Morrisey, interim WVU basketball coach Josh Eilert and other college basketball followers – including ESPN analyst Jay Bilas – have pushed for the NCAA to allow Battle to play for the Mountaineers.
The coalition contends the NCAA’s transfer rule “artificially deters players and teams from achieving optimal matches by forcing college athletes to weigh the one-year ineligibility period against the benefits of moving to a better matched school. It is ironic that this rule, stylized as promoting the welfare of college athletes, strips them of the agency and opportunity to optimize their own welfare as they see fit," also noting “the connection between the rule and academic well-being or athletic amateurism is tenuous at best and is outweighed by the harm it does to college athletes and consumers of college athletics.”
The coalition says the rule is a "no-poach agreement between horizontal competitor member schools that serves to allocate the market for the labor of NCAA Division I college athletes."
"This agreement plainly violates the Sherman Act," the AGs state in their complaint. "The fact that it was created under the auspices of the NCAA does not shield it from antitrust scrutiny. In contrast to college athletes, students with academic or music scholarships can freely transfer institutions without facing similar restraints on their ability to practice their craft.
"Likewise, coaches and administrators face no comparable barriers. The Transfer Eligibility Rule requires a year of academic residency before a transferring Division I college athlete is eligible to participate in NCAA athletic competition. Underscoring its anticompetitive nature, the rule is not universally applied. A college athlete’s first transfer is excepted from this process, and there is a discretionary waiver process. But the rule remains the default for Division I college athletes who transfer a second time."
The AGs say the NCAA rule is anticompetitive and an unlawful barrier for certain athletes and schools to compete against each other.
"States bring this action to put a stop to defendant’s unjustified overreach into the lives and careers of college athletes, to prevent the unjustified anticompetitive restriction on universities who seek to compete for college athletes, and to restore freedom of economic opportunity," the complaint states.
In another filing, Morrisey asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order barring the NCAA from enforcing the transfer rule.
“Division I college athletes subject to the Transfer Eligibility Rule will suffer irreparable harm by continuing to be barred from competing this season in their respective collegiate sports and by facing transfer decisions burdened by the risks of ineligibility that the Rule imposes on second-time transferring college athletes," that motion states.
"Real issues are at stake here for the citizens of West Virginia, and they implicate my duties as the state’s chief antitrust officer,” Morrisey said. “The NCAA also failed to recognize the underlying issues involving RaeQuan and many other student athletes in similar situations.
"There’s no reason for the NCAA to deny this young man the ability to play the sport he loves and that helps him with his mental health. RaeQuan’s background, what he had to go through to achieve his dream, shows the determination he has.”
Morrisey previously has said the NCAA’s decision to restrain transfers by hundreds of student-athletes each year and deprive them of the chance to pursue the athletic and educational opportunities of their choice raised serious questions under the antitrust laws, adding that those missed opportunities are often tied to name, image and likeness agreements that in turn provide substantial commercial benefits to athletes at Division I institutions like WVU.
The coalition asks the court to affirm the NCAA rule violates the Sherman Act and to enter a permanent injunction stopping the NCAA from enforcing the rule. It also seeks court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Morrisey joined the Ohio-led lawsuit with Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number 1:23-cv-100