Gulf South Conference v. Boyd

• Decision Date: 06 April 1979
• Citation: 369 So.2d 553
• Parties: GULF SOUTH CONFERENCE, an Unincorporated Association v. Julian R. BOYD. 77-750.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 553

369 So.2d 553

GULF SOUTH CONFERENCE, an Unincorporated Association v. Julian R. BOYD.

77-750.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

April 6, 1979.

Oakley Melton, Jr., Montgomery, for appellant.

Joe C. Cassady, Enterprise, for appellee.

BEATTY, Justice.

This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court of Pike County declaring that the plaintiff, Julian R. Boyd, is eligible to participate in varsity football at Troy State University. We affirm.

On July 12, 1977 the plaintiff Boyd filed his original complaint for a declaratory judgment against the defendant, Gulf South Conference (hereinafter called GSC), asking that the court declare him eligible to participate in varsity football at Troy State University. Boyd's complaint alleged that there is a justiciable controversy between the parties and that Boyd is eligible to participate in varsity football at Troy State University under the provisions of the eligibility rules and regulations of the GSC. Boyd requested the court to declare him eligible for the 1977-1978 football season.

The defendant, GSC, moved to dismiss the complaint or to quash service on the ground that the lower court lacked jurisdiction in the matter, that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, and on other grounds. Following dismissal of this motion GSC filed its answer to the complaint.

A hearing was held on June 28, 1978. On August 2, 1978 the trial judge found that under the evidence as applied to the rules and regulations of the GSC, Boyd was entitled to the relief requested. The court therefore ordered that Boyd was eligible to participate in varsity football at Troy State University for the 1978-1979 football season provided Boyd was a student in good standing and enrolled at the Troy, Alabama campus of Troy State University for the Fall Term 1978. Appeal followed in due course.

The essential facts are undisputed. Boyd entered Livingston University in the Fall of 1975 on a full grant-in-aid football scholarship and played on the Livingston University football team during the Fall of 1975. The full grant-in-aid football scholarship awarded to and accepted by Boyd was only for a one-year period (covering only the 1975-76 football season), and was renewable at Livingston University's discretion, subject to Boyd's acceptance. During the 1975-1976 football season both Boyd and Livingston University performed all of their commitments to each other as required by the terms of that one-year scholarship.

At the end of the 1975-1976 school year Livingston University Coach Jack Crowe forwarded Boyd a written offer to renew his football scholarship at Livingston University for the 1976-1977 school year. Boyd did not accept the offer. By telephone Coach Crowe urged Boyd to return and play on the Livingston football team. During that telephone conversation, Boyd informed Coach Crowe that he could not play football as a running back because of an asthmatic condition he had developed. Boyd also informed Coach Crowe that he did not want to return to Livingston University because he wanted to live in Enterprise, Alabama and work part-time with his father while attending Enterprise State Junior College. Coach Crowe then told Boyd that he could be a specialist player as a punter on the team if Boyd's asthmatic condition would not permit him to be a running back. However, Boyd still declined the offer of Livingston University to renew his grant-in-aid and finally told Coach Crowe that for personal reasons he chose not to go back to Livingston University.

Boyd later enrolled at Enterprise State Junior College for the 1976-1977 school year and was graduated in the Summer of 1977. Boyd then discussed with Dr. Stewart at Troy State University the possibility of transferring to Troy and playing on Troy's varsity football team as a punter. He was informed that he had been ruled ineligible by the Commissioner of the GSC. Troy State, thereafter, appealed the Commissioner's ruling to the Faculty Appeals Committee of the GSC. That committee affirmed the Commissioner's ruling that Boyd was ineligible to play football at Troy State.

Both Livingston University and Troy State University are members of the GSC, an unincorporated voluntary athletic association organized by nine colleges and universities. The stated purpose of the GSC is to promote fair competition between the schools by developing rules and regulations mutually agreed upon by the member schools. The Conference is governed by a Constitution, Bylaws and Rules. Enforcement is exercised through the Commissioner of the Conference and a Faculty Appeals Committee. The GSC is also affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association and subject to its rules and regulations.

The GSC eligibility rules at issue here are contained in Article VI, Section 7; Article V, Section 3(B) and (C); and Article VIII, Section 3, of the GSC Bylaws. GSC Bylaws, Article VI, Section 7, provides as follows:

A student-athlete who transfers from one GSC school to another will not be eligible to participate in any sport at the second school unless (1) the first one drops that sport and all other GSC rules are complied with, or (2) if the student qualifies under Bylaws Article V, Section 3, B or C, or (3) Article VIII, Section 3.

GSC Bylaws, Article V, Section 3(B) and (C) provides:

Section 3. Migrants or Transfers are students who enter a college after having been registered in another college. (Attendance at Summer School excepted.)

B. Any student who has attended a GSC school but has not been recruited in any way; has not signed a pre-enrollment application, has received no financial aid, and has not participated would be a Transfer upon attending any other GSC school.

C. When a GSC member does not renew the grant-in-aid of an eligible athlete according to NCAA Constitution 3-4(d), the athlete becomes a free agent and may be signed by any other GSC school as a Transfer.

GSC Bylaws, Article VIII, Section 3, provides as follows:

A student-athlete who signs a PRE-ENROLLMENT APPLICATION with one GSC school (and same is duly processed with the GSC Commissioner) cannot participate with any other GSC school, except: A prospective student-athlete who does not accept the grant-in-aid at that school nor participate becomes a free agent at the end of two (2) years and can be signed by any GSC school.

The GSC contends that the lower court's order was erroneous for two reasons; the first being that the lower court was without jurisdiction to intervene in the internal affairs of the GSC.

GSC contends that this Court's decision in Scott v. Kilpatrick, 286 Ala. 129, 237 So.2d 652 (1970) is conclusive on the issue of the lower court's jurisdiction. The Scott case involved a transfer rule of a high school athletic association and not a college athletic association. In Scott the complainant contended that the transfer rule of the Alabama High School Athletic Association was unconstitutional since his right to compete for an opportunity to play high school football involved a property right. The right to play high school football was alleged to be a property right on the ground that a good high school football player had an opportunity for a scholarship in many colleges of this state, and that to declare such a player ineligible to play football denied him an opportunity to compete for such a scholarship. This Court held that participation in high school athletics was a privilege and not a property right. This Court further found that "(i)f officials of a school desire to associate with other schools and prescribe conditions of eligibility for students who are to become members of the school's athletic teams, and the member schools vest final enforcement of the association's rules in boards of control, then a court should not interfere in such internal operation of the affairs of the association." Scott, supra, at 132, 237 So.2d at 655. Scott, however, is distinguishable from the instant case.

Scott involved a high school athletic association while the present case involves a college athletic association. There is a vast difference between high school football and college football. A high school athlete receives no present economic benefit from playing high school football, his only economic benefit being the possibility of his receiving an offer of a college scholarship. The Scott case held that such a possibility was too speculative to recognize as a property right. In contrast, the college athlete receives a scholarship of substantial pecuniary value to engage in college sports. Such scholarships often cover the complete cost of attending a college or university; therefore, the right to be eligible to participate in college athletics cannot be viewed as a mere speculative interest, but is a property right of present economic value. Cf. Byars v. Baptist Medical Center, Inc., 361 So.2d 350 ...