NCAA Reaches $209M Student Athlete Pay Cap Class Action Settlement

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association and 11 conferences have agreed to pay $208.7 million to resolve multidistrict litigation alleging an antitrust conspiracy to cap the scholarships of student athletes.

On Friday, the plaintiffs filed a motion seeking preliminary approval of the proposed NCAA class action settlement after engaging in more than a year of negotiations with a mediator.

“The negotiations have involved numerous difficult, time consuming issues, have been at arm’s length at all times, and broke down several times before the parties finally reached agreement,” the plaintiffs state in their motion asking a judge to preliminarily approve the deal.

According to the proposed student athlete scholarship settlement, an average of about $6,800 will be awarded to current and former college basketball and football players who played the sport for four years and were affected by the scholarship caps.

The NCAA will reportedly pay for the entire class action settlement fund.

If the NCAA class action settlement is approved, eligible Class Members will not need to submit a Claim Form. They will be directly notified and a settlement check will be mailed to them if and when the NCAA settlement becomes final, unless they opt out.

The NCAA scholarship class action lawsuit was initially filed in March 2014. The plaintiff asserted the NCAA and member conferences engaged in an antitrust conspiracy to cap the maximum grant-in-aid at less than the full cost of attending college. This had the effect of denying student-athletes the full cost of attending their universities, the NCAA antitrust class action lawsuit alleges.

The original NCAA class action lawsuit was subsequently consolidated with other similar NCAA class action lawsuits into multidistrict litigation titled In re: National Collegiate Athletic Association Grant-in-Aid Antitrust Class Action Litigation.

In addition to the NCAA, the student athlete grant-in-aid MDL also names the following conferences as defendants: Pac-12 Conference, The Big Ten Conference Inc., The Big 12 Conference Inc., Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Athletic Conference Inc., Mountain West Conference, Sun Belt Conference and Western Athletic Conference.

The defendants vigorously fought against the student athlete pay cap litigation, but their efforts to dismiss the NCAA class action lawsuit were unsuccessful.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the green “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The plaintiffs are represented by Steve W. Berman, Craig R. Spiegel and Ashley A. Bede of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and Bruce L. Simon, Aaron M. Sheanin and Benjamin E. Shiftan of Pearson Simon & Warshaw LLP.

The NCAA Athlete Scholarship Cap Class Action Lawsuit is In re: National Collegiate Athletic Association Athletic Grant-in-Aid Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 4:14-md-02541, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.