An Ongoing 'Battle' for Justice: The NCAA's Resistance to Change

This past year, to say that NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) and player’s freedoms defined the collegiate sports world would be a gross understatement.

During a time where our world became more connected than ever, the convergence of collegiate sports and a social media ‘boom’ captured a digital market with millions of stakeholders at play.

Young stars like Bronny James, Livvy Dunne, and Sheduer Sanders leveraged their followers to close multi-million dollar deals, and if you don’t know how impactful that statement was then let me clarify how insane it is.

Corporations, global brands, and world-renowned Universities went well out of their way to engage with people, who only just recently graduated high school, to prop up their business!

By the end of 2023, the collegiate NIL industry can be safely valued at $1 billion.

A billion dollar industry that is still supported by non-revenue earning student athletes.

A billion dollar industry of which a mere 2% of those student athletes end up pursuing sports as a profession. [1]

The NCAA has had a long and unadmirable history of neglecting any sort of effort to help give back to the kids that allow them to operate as a billion dollar business.

This organization has continuously restricted the freedoms of their student athletes.?

This discussion, however, is aimed at another angle of what those freedoms can look like in a dynamic industry and across the chaotic landscape of college sports in 2024.

NIL has saturated the social space of collegiate sports development.

Unbeknownst to the average fan, there are other hot topics like eligibility and transferability that have been just as important to debate.

As the catalyst to the seemingly endless domino effect, NIL acted as the key to unlocking these topics.

Our discussion comes at the expense of an exceptional Division 1 basketball player and proud native American athlete, RaeQuan Battle.

“[Battle] is a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington, and spent his entire life on the reservation 40 miles north of Seattle. He’s the first person from the Tulalip people to earn a Division I scholarship.” [2]

In every phase of his adult life, Battle faced terrible adversity. From the trauma of a childhood friend passing to a drug overdose, adjacent deaths due to COVID and alcohol abuse on the Reservation, Battle began to tap in the resources provided to him through basketball. [3]

After his initial transfer from Washington to Montana State, Battle began to form an intimate relationship with his new coach, Danny Sprinkle, who aided him in his mental health struggles.?

Sprinkle took on the role of a therapist for the young athlete, which was why his eventual departure to Utah State and a better coaching gig came to influence Battle into transferring for the third time in three years.

Per ncaa.org: "[S]uppose you want to transfer to your third four-year school...In this hypothetical, the transfer is allowed but with a penalty of sitting out a year. That means you will not play and possibly not practice with the team for an entire year." [7]

Although explicit, this rule regarding transferability is not supported by any concrete motive except to maybe deter multiple transfers within a short period of time.

In terms of the antitrust sentiments, the NCAA had a chance to right their previous wrongs and take a step in the right direction to support an athlete who needed it.

I'll let you guess how the NCAA reacted to Battle's decision...

“RaeQuan Battle was denied a waiver to play at West Virginia this season by the NCAA.?

WVU sent in an appeal which was also denied three weeks later. Battle's attorney, James A. “Rocky” Gianola is taking the proper steps to try and reverse the decision while the university is also planning to send a request for reconsideration.” [4]

To name only a few times the NCAA grossly committed antitrust violations, we can reference a few infamous cases:

• Law vs. NCAA, where collegiate coaches’ salaries were unlawfully capped [5]
• NCAA vs. Tarkanian, where Jerry Tarkanian’s right to Due Process under the law was denied by the NCAA [6]

These cases are hailed as some of the greatest legal losses by the NCAA in court.

Battle’s rejection of transferability by the NCAA now finds him at West Virginia and finally playing after 10 missed games to start the season. But the story doesn’t end there.

It can be presumed that Battle’s team will plan to take the NCAA to court over the initial denial for Battle’s request. With the elements of lost NIL opportunity and Battle’s history of mental health struggles, the young star has a whole nation behind his back and a strong case against the NCAA.

NCAA attorneys and employees of their legal division have had their plates full with antitrust so much, that maybe it will finally be time for them to consider treating their student athletes in a fair and lawful manner.

Antitrust lawsuits have taken hundreds of millions of dollars from the NCAA through litigation fees, settlements, and violations. Ultimately, this case will add to that statistic.?

The real question here is whether or not this will finally tip the scales.

Hopefully Battle's litigation will push the NCAA to recognize their student athletes for the value they provide rather than purporting the fear of that responsibility.

Sources:

[1] NCAA. (n.d.). NCAA recruiting facts more than 460,000 1, teams 3 divisions 1 ... - NFHS. recruiting-fact-sheet-web.pdf. https://www.nfhs.org/media/886012/recruiting-fact-sheet-web.pdf??

[2] Andy Yamashita The Daily | Cover Photo Conor Courtney, Courtney, C., & Ely, L. (2020, April 6). How the reservation raised Raequan Battle. The Daily of the University of Washington. https://www.dailyuw.com/sports/how-the-reservation-raised-raequan-battle/article_af902a0e-52d0-11ea-bc80-ab9be6ae5a3d.html?

[3] RaeQuan Battle [@RaeQuanBattle]. (2023, December 5). @NCAA… https://twitter.com/RaeQuanBattle/status/1732083527879946446?

[4] Callihan, S. (2023, December 5). Watch: Raequan Battle sends message to NCAA, explains story. Si.com. https://www.si.com/college/westvirginia/basketball/raequan-battle-sends-message-to-ncaa-explains-story?

[5] Law v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 5 F. Supp. 2d 921 (D. Kan. 1998), https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/5/921/2341220/?

[6] NCAA v. Tarkanian, 488 U.S. 179 (1988), https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/488/179/

[7] IMG Academy. (2023, November 29). NCAA Transfer Rules (2023 update). NCSA College Recruiting. https://www.ncsasports.org/recruiting/ncaa-transfer-rules