Matthews v. Ncaa

• Citation: 179 F.Supp.2d 1209
• Decision Date: 23 October 2001
• Docket Number: No. CS-99-0264.,CS-99-0264.
• Parties: Anthony MATTHEWS, Plaintiff, v. The NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Washington

Page 1209

179 F.Supp.2d 1209

Anthony MATTHEWS, Plaintiff, v. The NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, Defendant.

No. CS-99-0264.

United States District Court, E.D. Washington.

October 23, 2001.

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Richard H. Wooster, Mann Johnson Wooster & McLaughlin PS, Tacoma, WA, for Plaintiff.

Paul Renwick Taylor, Brynes & Keller, Paul R. Raskin, Corr Cronin LLP, Seattle, WA, for Defendant.

ORDER

WM. FREMMING NIELSEN, District Judge.

On October 27, 2000, Plaintiff filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. Defendant responded by filing an Opposition to Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment and a Cross Motion for Summary Judgment. Richard Wooster filed briefs on behalf of Plaintiff, and Paul Taylor and William Walsh filed briefs on behalf of Defendant. On September 18, 2001, the Court heard oral argument on the Motions and asked the parties to file supplemental briefing on the issue of mootness. The Court has reviewed the file, the Motions, the supplemental briefing, and the applicable law, and for the reasons discussed below grants in part and denies in part Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment, and also grants in part and denies in part Defendant's Cross Motion for Summary Judgment. Because Plaintiff's ADA claim has become moot, however, the Court dismisses that claim with prejudice and dismisses Plaintiff's state law claim — over which the Court had supplemental jurisdiction — without prejudice.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Anthony Matthews initially filed his Complaint and a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on September 15, 1999. Plaintiff, who has a diagnosed learning disability, alleged in his Complaint that the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA] violated the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA] and the Washington Law Against Discrimination when it declared him academically ineligible to play intercollegiate football. Judge Franklin Burgess transferred venue to this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2) on September 23, 1999. On October 5, 1999, Senior Judge Justin Quackenbush issued a Temporary Restraining Order, enjoining Defendant from declaring Plaintiff academically ineligible to participate in intercollegiate football games and practices. On October 22, 1999, this Court issued an Amended Temporary Restraining Order adding new Defendants Washington State University [WSU] and the PAC-10 Athletic Conference. Then, on December 1, 1999, after the parties filed additional briefing and presented oral argument on Plaintiff's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction, the Court vacated the Temporary Restraining Order and denied Plaintiff's request for an injunction. The Court found that Plaintiff could not show a likelihood of success on the merits on any of his claims. Nine months later, the Court approved a Stipulated Order dismissing Defendants PAC-10 and Washington State University without prejudice. Plaintiff subsequently filed the instant Motion for Summary Judgment, and Defendant NCAA responded with its Cross Motion for Summary Judgment.

In January, 2001, before considering the pending Motions, the Court became aware that the U.S. Supreme Court had issued a writ of certiorari in a Ninth Circuit case dealing with the application of the ADA to disabled athletes. Martin v. PGA Tour, Inc., 204 F.3d 994 (9th Cir.2000), cert. granted, 530 U.S. 1306, 121 S.Ct. 30, 147 L.Ed.2d 1052 (2000). Based on the possibility that the Supreme Court's decision in the Martin case might affect the rulings in the pending Motions in this case, the Court stayed the summary judgment hearing date until issuance of the Supreme Court's Martin decision; the parties did not oppose the stay. The Supreme Court issued its opinion on May 29, 2001. PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin, 532 U.S. 661, 121 S.Ct. 1879, 149 L.Ed.2d 904 (2001). The parties in this case then submitted supplemental briefing on issues raised by the Martin case, and the Court renoted the hearing on Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment and Defendant's Cross Motion for July 27, 2001. The Court subsequently set oral argument for September 18, 2001.

II. FACTS¹

Plaintiff Anthony Matthews, a college student initially enrolled at WSU, filed this lawsuit when Defendant NCAA declared him academically ineligible to play intercollegiate football during the 1999 season. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 4 at 2.) Plaintiff began his college career at WSU in 1997 and played on the WSU football team during the 1998 season. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 1 at 2.)

Purpose of NCAA. The NCAA is a voluntary association, comprising approximately 1,200 member institutions, that administers intercollegiate athletic programs. According to the NCAA Manual, the association's basic purpose is "to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body and, by so doing, retain a clear line of demarcation between intercollegiate athletics and professional sports." (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 10 at 2.) The NCAA also lists the following as some of its specific purposes: promoting educational leadership, developing physical fitness, and stimulating athletics participation as a recreational pursuit. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 10 at 2.)

NCAA Control over University Athletic Facilities. The NCAA exercises little, if any, control over the operation of athletic facilities such as college football stadiums. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 2.) The NCAA rules do not prevent students from using university athletic facilities when those facilities are not being used for organized practices and games. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 2.) The NCAA does not control university sports facilities' hours of operation, staffing, management, or access to the public. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 2.) The member institutions schedule competitions, set ticket prices for regular season events, determine concession prices, manage concession sales, and control any broadcasts of athletic events during the regular seasons. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 3.) The NCAA also receives no revenue from use of the facilities during the teams' regular seasons. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 2; Ex. 8 at 8.)

The association does, however, obtain revenue from bowl games in which its member institutions participate. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 2; Ex. 8 at 8.) The NCAA bylaws also dictate the length of the playing seasons, the number of games, and the number of hours student-athletes may practice each week. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 3.) Additionally, the NCAA publishes rules of play governing intercollegiate athletics, supervises regional and national athletics events, and establishes eligibility standards for athletics events. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 10 at 2.)

NCAA Eligibility Rules. As part of its eligibility standards, the NCAA imposes certain academic requirements for its member institutions' student-athletes. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 1; Wooster Decl. Supp. Summ. J., Ex. 1 at 2-3.) A student-athlete's failure to meet the requirements can result in the NCAA declaring the athlete ineligible to participate in intercollegiate sports. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 4 at 3.) For example, under NCAA eligibility rules, student-athletes must maintain a college grade point average of at least 1.8 and must attain 25 percent of the credit hours required for a degree by the completion of their second year of college enrollment. (Wooster Decl. Supp. Summ. J., Ex. 1 at 3.)

Another eligibility rule requires that student-athletes earn 75 percent of their annual required credit hours during the regular academic year. (Wooster Decl. Supp. Summ. J., Ex. 1 at 3.) The NCAA defines the "regular academic year" as "the time beginning with the opening of the institutions' fall term and concluding with the institutions' spring commencement exercises." (Pl.'s Mem. Supp. Summ. J. at 2, citing NCAA Bylaw 14.4.3.1.3.1.) The NCAA established this rule, called the "75/25 Rule," in 1992 to ensure that student-athletes maintain a course load equivalent to the general student body during the normal school year. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 2.) The NCAA promulgated the rule after various member institutions expressed concern about student-athletes' excessive use of summer school courses to maintain eligibility while taking reduced course loads during the normal school year. (Def.'s Statement of Facts, Ex. 5 at 2.) The NCAA bylaws permit waivers of certain academic eligibility requirements for a learning disabled student-athlete when the university, to accommodate the student's disability, defines full-time enrollment for that student-athlete as fewer than 12 credit hours per semester. (Pl.'s Mem. Supp. Summ. J. at 3.)

Matthews' Learning Disability. Plaintiff has been diagnosed with a significant learning disability. (Wooster Decl. Supp. Summ. J., Ex. 2 at 2.) According to documents submitted in support of his Motion for Summary Judgment, Plaintiff has difficulty processing information. On one reading test designed to assess his abilities, his scores ranged from the sixth to the tenth percentile. (Wooster Decl. Supp. Summ. J., Ex. 3 at 13.) His full-scale IQ ranks at the 13th percentile. (Wooster Decl. Supp. Summ. J., Ex. 2 at 9; Ex. 3 at 5-6.) In a learning disability assessment, Steven J. Kruse, Ph.D., concluded that Plaintiff displays significantly impaired performance in written language tasks and meets Washington state criteria for having a specific learning disability in written language. (Wooster Decl., Ex. 2 at 11.) Dr. Kruse noted that Plaintiff "demonstrated clear deficits in basic reading skills including word recognition, phonetic reading, and understanding of word meanings.... [B]oth expressive (writ...