Cureton v. Nat'tl Collegiate Athletic Assoc.

Decision Date16 May 2001
Docket NumberNo. 00-1559,00-1559
Citation252 F.3d 267
Parties(3rd Cir. 2001) TAI KWAN CURETON; LEATRICE SHAW, each individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated; ALEXANDER WESBY; ANDREA GARDNER v. NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION; Tai Kwan Cureton; Leatrice Shaw; Alexander Wesby; Andrea Gardner, Appellants
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Andre L. Dennis, Esquire (Argued), Danielle Banks, Esquire, Stradley, Ronon, Steves & Young, Philadelphia, PA. Adele P. Kimmel, Esquire, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, P.C., Washington, D.C. J. Richard Cohen, Esquire, Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, AL, Attorneys for Appellants.

David P. Bruton, Esquire (Argued), Michael W. McTigue, Jr., Esquire, Drinker, Biddle & Reath, Philadelphia, PA. Elsa Kircher Cole, General Counsel, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellees.

Before: ROTH, MCKEE and STAPLETON, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

ROTH, Circuit Judge:

This is a putative class action by African-American student-athletes challenging the minimum standardized test score requirement for freshman year varsity intercollegiate athletic participation. This suit began almost four years ago and has previously been before us on appeal. See Cureton v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 198 F.3d 107 (3d Cir. 1999). In the instant appeal, we must determine whether the District Court abused its discretion in denying plaintiffs' motion to alter or amend summary judgment and for contemporaneous leave to file a second amended complaint. We conclude that the District Court did not abuse its discretion, and for the reasons that follow we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.

I. FACTS

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is an unincorporated voluntary association of more than one thousand members, a majority of which are public and private four-year colleges and universities that conduct varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. The NCAA member colleges are divided into Divisions. This suit deals with an NCAA bylaw called Proposition 16, which affects initial eligibility only in Division I.1 Proposition 16, codified at NCAA Bylaw 14.3, has two components which operate on a sliding scale: a minimum high school grade point average (GPA) in thirteen required core courses and a minimum standardized test score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or the ACT Assessment.

Plaintiffs are African-American student-athletes who exceeded the NCAA minimum GPA requirement for freshman year athletic participation but failed to achieve the minimum required score on the SAT as required by Proposition 16. They allege that, because of Proposition 16, they lost the opportunity to compete in Division I varsity intercollegiate athletics during their freshman year, were denied admission to Division I schools, were denied athletic scholarships, and/or were denied recruiting opportunities by Division I schools.

Because the factual and procedural history of this case bears directly on our decision, we recite it in some detail. Plaintiffs began this action on January 8, 1997, alleging that the minimum standardized test score component of Proposition 16 violated Title VI regulations because it had an unjustified disparate impact on African-American student-athletes. As plaintiffs' counsel stated in a declaration filed with the District Court, counsel chose to pursue a disparate impact challenge to Proposition 16, rather than an intentional discrimination claim, because a disparate impact claim had a less "demanding" standard of proof. On February 5, 1997, the NCAA moved to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint, contending, inter alia, that (1) there was no private right of action for unintentional discrimination under Title VI; (2) the NCAA was not a "program or activity" subject to Title VI; and (3) the NCAA did not receive the federal funding necessary to subject it to Title VI.

Plaintiffs responded to the NCAA's motion to dismiss and moved for partial summary judgment on the grounds that, as a matter of law, the NCAA was a covered program or activity subject to a Title VI action and was a recipient of federal financial assistance for purposes of Title VI. The NCAA contends, and the District Court found, that as part of their opposition to the motion, plaintiffs demonstrated knowledge of several of the facts that plaintiffs would later allege were evidence of intentional discrimination. Specifically, plaintiffs referred to criticism from the administrator of the SAT and from the NCAA's own studies which warned that the NCAA's use of standardized test scores for freshman eligibility would have a disparate impact on African-American student-athletes. Despite the existence of this evidence, however, plaintiffs did not suggest that it demonstrated intentional discrimination. To the contrary, the District Court found that plaintiffs praised the NCAA's motives in adopting initial eligibility standards as "laudable."

On October 9, 1997, the District Court denied the NCAA's motion to dismiss while granting in part and denying in part plaintiffs' motion for partial summary judgment. The court determined that there was a private right of action under Title VI for disparate impact2 and held that the NCAA is a "program or activity" within the meaning of Title VI. However, the court left open the question of whether the NCAA receives federal funds as a result of its relationship with the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP).

On June 22, 1998, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Gebser v. Lago Vista Ind. Sch. Distr., 524 U.S. 274, 141 L. Ed. 2d 277, 118 S. Ct. 1989 (1998). As a result, plaintiffs' counsel became aware that the Supreme Court had articulated a deliberate indifference standard, albeit in the Title IX context, to determine whether a recipient of federal funds could be liable for knowingly allowing discrimination to occur. Meanwhile, in response to the Supreme Court having granted certiorari in a Title VI case, the NCAA moved in September of 1998 to amend the District Court's October 9, 1997, order and to certify for appeal the question of whether Title VI's implementing regulations permitted a private right of action.

Plaintiffs acknowledge that they considered moving to amend their complaint to allege intentional discrimination at this point. However, because the District Court denied the NCAA's motion to certify the private right of action question for appeal, plaintiffs made a tactical decision not to move to amend their complaint. Plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment on their disparate impact claim on October 6, 1998. That motion contained a footnote suggesting plaintiffs' belief that they could allege a purposeful discrimination claim in light of Gebser.3

On November 13, 1998, plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint by adding two additional named parties. The NCAA filed a cross motion for summary judgment on November 18, 1998, and opposed plaintiffs' motions for summary judgment and for leave to add party plaintiffs. In support of its motion for summary judgment, the NCAA attached the affidavit of an NCAA official who opined that one of the valid educational objectives of Proposition 16 was closing the gap between black and white student-athlete graduation rates.

By memorandum and order dated December 18, 1998, the District Court allowed the two additional named plaintiffs to intervene pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 24. The District Court's order granting the motion specifically stated that "it bears noting that the time is near to when motions of this sort would affect the close of discovery and consequently, any additional similar requests will be looked on with disfavor."

Subsequently, both parties filed supplemental submissions in support of summary judgment and participated in oral argument. On March 8, 1999, the District Court denied the NCAA's motion for summary judgment and granted plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, declaring Proposition 16 unlawful under Title VI's implementing regulations and permanently enjoining application of Proposition 16. See Cureton v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 37 F. Supp. 2d 687 (E.D.Pa. 1999). The District Court concluded that the NCAA was an indirect recipient of federal funding due to its complete control over the NYSP Fund. Alternatively, the District Court determined that the NCAA was subject to Title VI coverage because member schools had ceded controlling authority to it.

Next, the District Court determined that the NCAA's legitimate objective in adopting Proposition 16 was raising overall student-athlete graduation rates and rejected the NCAA's alternative justification of closing the gap between black and white student-athlete graduation rates. The court held that the NCAA's second proffered objective, closing the gap between black and white student-athletes, was "unequivocally not the purpose behind" adoption of Proposition 16. Finally, the court determined that the use of the standardized test score for freshman eligibility had an unjustified disparate impact on African-American student-athletes and that there were equally effective alternatives to the standardized test score component which could further the NCAA's objective of increasing graduation rates of student-athletes. On March 16, 1999, the District Court clarified its injunction and enjoined the NCAA from denying eligibility based on the minimum standardized test component of Proposition 16.

On December 22, 1999, we reversed the District Court's grant of summary judgment to plaintiffs and remanded the case with directions to enter judgment for the NCAA. See Cureton v. NCAA, 198 F.3d 107 (3d Cir. 1999). Specifically, we found that the Title VI regulations under which plaintiffs sued were program specific (i.e., specific to the NYSP) and therefore did not reach ...

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