Jones v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, Civ. A. No. 74-5519-T.

• Decision Date: 21 March 1975
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 74-5519-T.
• Citation: 392 F. Supp. 295
• Parties: Stephen A. JONES, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

392 F. Supp. 295

Stephen A. JONES, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 74-5519-T.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

March 21, 1975.

Martin, Morse & Wylie, Gordon A. Martin, Jr., Boston, Mass., for plaintiff.

John C. Wyman, Herrick, Smith, Donald, Farley & Ketchum, Boston, Mass., for N. C. A. A. & Byers.

Palmer & Dodge, Reginald H. Howe, Boston, Mass., for Northeastern Univ.

OPINION AND ORDER

TAURO, District Judge.

This is an action brought by a Northeastern University (Northeastern) hockey player against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N.C.A.A.), the N.C.A.A. Executive Director Walter Byers (Byers), Northeastern, and Northeastern's Director of Athletics, Herbert H. Gallagher (Gallagher). The plaintiff seeks to enjoin the defendants from declaring him ineligible to play intercollegiate ice hockey. He also asks this court to restrain the N.C.A.A. and Byers from imposing sanctions upon Northeastern for either permitting him to participate in intercollegiate hockey, or for providing him with financial assistance on the same basis that it provides such aid to other student-athletes with demonstrable financial need.

The complaint sets forth two theories of action. Count I is a civil rights claim alleging denial of due process and equal protection under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343. Count II is an antitrust claim alleging violations of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1, 2) and jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1337.

Plaintiff's requests for a temporary restraining order was granted on December 9, 1974, following a hearing at which all parties then joined were represented by counsel. A more exhaustive hearing on plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction was held on December 17, 1974. From the evidence presented at that hearing, the court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

I

The plaintiff is an American citizen and a resident of Melrose, Massachusetts. He is currently a full-time student at Northeastern's Boston campus, and receives no financial aid from the University. He is in good academic standing.

The defendant N.C.A.A. is an unincorporated association of over 600 colleges and universities, half of which are state institutions. The N.C.A.A. sets eligibility rules for student-athletes at its member institutions and also sponsors the N.C.A.A. hockey tournament for the championship of college hockey in the United States. See Buckton v. N.C.A.A., 366 F.Supp. 1152, 1155 (D. Mass.1972). It conducts its affairs in close cooperation with the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (E.C.A.C.), an unincorporated association of approximately 200 four-year colleges and universities in the Eastern United States.

In April 1974, the plaintiff enrolled in Northeastern's College of Business Administration. Upon matriculation, the plaintiff informed Northeastern officials of his desire to participate in the school's intercollegiate ice hockey program. Plaintiff was then asked to complete both an "Intercollegiate Ice Hockey Affidavit" prepared by the E. C.A.C. and an "Ice Hockey Questionnaire" from the N.C.A.A. The completed documents revealed that during the last three years of high school, and for the two hockey seasons between his high school graduation and admission to college, the plaintiff had played for a succession of Canadian and American "amateur" hockey teams. Plaintiff received compensation from these teams not only while he was attending school, but also during the two years that he was not pursuing his education.¹

On the basis of this information, Gallagher concluded that plaintiff was in violation of the N.C.A.A. and E.C.A. A. rules of amateurism² and therefore ineligible for intercollegiate hockey. Neverthless, Gallagher sought "waivers" from both organizations. If granted, these waivers would have allowed Northeastern to permit plaintiff to represent the school in intercollegiate competition without fear of sanctions by either association. On September 11, 1974, the E.C.A.C. granted such a "waiver," but on November 18, 1974, the N.C.A.A. denied Northeastern's request. Following the N.C.A.A.'s decision, Northeastern declared that the plaintiff was ineligible to represent the University in intercollegiate hockey games for the 1974-75 season. The plaintiff then brought this action.

II

In considering plaintiff's application for a preliminary injunction, this court must determine whether there is a substantial likelihood of his prevailing on the merits, and then balance the possible irreparable injury to the plaintiff, if relief is denied, against the potential harm to the defendants if relief is granted. See, e. g., Allison v. Froehlke, 470 F.2d 1123 (5th Cir. 1972) (Moore, J.). Based on the evidence adduced in this case so far, most of which came to light for the first time during the taking of testimony at the December 17 hearing, plaintiff has failed to show a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits and so preliminary relief must be denied.

This court has held in the past that the actions of the N.C.A.A., declaring student-athletes ineligible to participate in intercollegiate hockey, constituted state action sufficient to meet the requirements of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Buckton v. N. C. A. A., 366 F.Supp. 1152, 1156-57 (D.Mass.1973). Since Buckton, two circuit courts and one district court, faced with the same issue, reached the identical result. See Parish v. N. C. A. A., 506 F.2d 1028 (5th Cir. 1975), citing Associated Students, Inc. v. N. C. A. A., 493 F.2d 1251, 1254-55 (9th Cir. 1974); Smith v. Southern Methodist University, CA-3-74-895B (N.D.Tex. 1974); Howard University v. N. C. A. A., 367 F.Supp. 926, 929 (D.D.C.1973). See also Curtis v. N. C. A. A., C-71 2088 ACW (N.D.Cal.1972). But see McDonald v. N. C. A. A., 370 F.Supp. 625 (C.D.Cal.1974). Recently, another district court has held that the actions of a private university constitute state action as well. Isaacs v. Board of Trustees of Temple University, 385 F.Supp. 473 (E. D.Pa.1974). With respect to the issue of state action, therefore, nothing has come to this court's attention which would warrant abandonment of its conclusion set forth in Buckton.

The substantive issues of plaintiff's claim, however, differ markedly from those presented in Buckton. Unlike the situation in Buckton, there is no claim here that the challenged N.C.A. A. eligibility regulations discriminate against the plaintiff on the basis of national origin, nor does there appear to be any other basis for the court to evaluate these regulations against a standard of strict scrutiny.³ Accordingly, the plaintiff is entitled to have the N.C.A. A.'s eligibility regulations invalidated only if they bear no rational relationship to that organization's legitimate objectives. See Parish v. N. C. A. A., 506 F. 2d 1028 (5th Cir. 1975).

The plaintiff was declared ineligible by Northeastern because he had allegedly violated the N.C.A.A.'s Principle of Amateurism which is embodied in Article Three of the Association's Constitution. Article Three, Section 1 reads:

Principle of Amateurism and Student Participation. An amateur studentathlete is one who engages in a particular sport for the educational, physical, mental and social benefits he derives therefrom, and to whom participation in that sport is an avocation.

The Article then goes on to list a number of specific eligibility standards, certain of which the plaintiff has allegedly failed to meet.⁴

The plaintiff claims that the decision to classify him as ineligible on the basis of those regulations is without rational foundation. The facts presented thus far, however, do not support his contention.

Prior to his matriculation at Northeastern, the plaintiff had played five seasons of hockey for various non-scholastic Canadian and American teams. During the first three of those seasons, he also attended high school either in this country or in Canada. For the remaining two seasons he played hockey but did not attend school. He received financial aid from his team during each of these five seasons.⁵ That plaintiff received aid from a hockey team during two seasons that he did not attend school makes Buckton a doubtful precedent for him to rely upon.

In Buckton, this court held that there was a substantial likelihood of equal protection violation when the N.C.A.A. declared ineligible two Boston University (B.U.) hockey players.⁶ Those players were Canadian Nationals who had played Canadian Major Junior A hockey prior to their matriculation at B.U. Aside from surface similarities, however, the facts here are clearly distinguishable and not nearly so compelling as those presented by Buckton.

As did the plaintiff here, the plaintiffs in Buckton played Major Junior A hockey. But they did so always in conjunction with their pursuit of a full-time secondary school education. As was more fully noted in Buckton, a Canadian athlete who wanted to go to school and simultaneously play organized hockey could only do so by joining one of the Canadian amateur teams, there being no significant inter-scholastic competition in Canada. Thus the compensation received by the Buckton plaintiffs from their team for room, board, books and travel was substantially equivalent, both in character and scope, to the aid permissibly awarded by American schools in the form of athletic scholarships. The only material distinction was that the source of the aid given the Buckton plaintiffs was the team, while their American counterparts received theirs from academic institutions. The American system was sanctioned by the same N.C.A.A. and E.C.A.C. regulations that outlawed the Canadian practice.⁷

The situation in the instant case is an entirely different one. The plaintiff here is an American, not a Canadian. His home town had an active hockey program and was called "Hockey Town U.S.A."...