CLARKSBURG — A federal judge has extended a temporary restraining order to allow student-athletes affected by the NCAA transfer rule to play through the winter and spring sports seasons.
U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey issued the order December 18. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and other state AGs had challenged the NCAA’s Transfer Eligibility Rule with a lawsuit filed earlier this month after the NCAA denied RaeQuan Battle’s request to transfer to play basketball at West Virginia University. The lawsuit claims the NCAA rule violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
Last week, Bailey granted a 14-day temporary restraining order to keep the NCAA from enforcing the rule. The AGs then asked for the extension December 15, which was granted Monday.
Morrisey
“This is a great day for student athletes — they will finally be able to compete in the sport they love,” Morrisey said. “It’s the right thing to do and I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.
“I hope this is the beginning of real change within the NCAA. We have to put the well-being of student athletes — physical, mental, academic and emotional — first. The NCAA needs to enact consistent, logical and defensible rules that are fair and equitable for everyone.”
Because the temporary restraining order now will remain in place until the court decides on the merits of the case, the district court also vacated the Dec. 27 preliminary injunction hearing.
Last week, Morrisey praised the judge’s ruling.
“This is a big win in the fight for student-athletes like RaeQuan Battle of West Virginia University to play in the sport they love,” Morrisey said. “This is all about the student-athletes who were sidelined with the NCAA’s onerous transfer rule, freeing them to pursue their passion and excel in their collegiate experience.
“Let the kids play.”
During a December 13 hearing, Battle testified in support of the temporary restraining order.
Morrisey said restraining transfers by hundreds of student-athletes each year violates the antitrust laws by depriving them of the chance to pursue the athletic and educational opportunities of their choice.
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 such as WVU.
“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 attorneys general 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.”
"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 to 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 argue that the NCAA rule is anti-competitive 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.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number 1:23-cv-100