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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 generally requires the NCAA to grant a waiver allowing the athlete to compete immediately. Without it, the athlete would have to sit out for a year at the new school.
The NCAA has implemented stricter guidelines for granting those waivers on a case-by-case basis.
