Lawsuit accuses NCAA of antitrust violation in college athlete transfer rule

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed by a group of states alleges the NCAA’s transfer rule for college athletes violates antitrust law.

The lawsuit, filed in West Virginia’s northern district, challenges the NCAA’s authority to impose a one-year delay in the eligibility of certain athletes who transfer between schools. The suit said the rule “unjustifiably restrains the ability of these college athletes to engage in the market for their labor as NCAA Division I college athletes.”

The lawsuit filed by West Virginia and six other states alleges violations of the Sherman Act.

NCAA rules allow underclassmen to transfer once without having to sit out a year. But an additional transfer as an undergraduate requires the NCAA to grant a waiver allowing the athlete to compete immediately. Without that waiver, the athlete would generally have to sit out for a year at the new school.

But the NCAA this year has implemented stricter guidelines for granting those waivers for second-time transfers, reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

NCAA spokeswoman Michelle Hosick didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday afternoon

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,” the lawsuit said.

The suit seeks a temporary restraining order against the NCAA from enforcing the transfer rule.

The other states involved in the lawsuit are Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee.

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AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.