Regents of University of Minnesota v. NCAA, 4-76-Civ-468.

• Decision Date: 02 December 1976
• Docket Number: No. 4-76-Civ-468.,4-76-Civ-468.
• Citation: 422 F. Supp. 1158
• Parties: REGENTS OF the UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA et al., Plaintiffs, v. NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

422 F. Supp. 1158

REGENTS OF the UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA et al., Plaintiffs, v. NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, Defendant.

No. 4-76-Civ-468.

United States District Court, D. Minnesota, Fourth Division.

December 2, 1976.

Joe A. Walters, Thomas A. Keller, III, Minneapolis, Minn., for plaintiff.

Wright W. Brooks, Minneapolis, Minn., for defendant.

Joseph M. Goldberg, Minneapolis, Minn., David C. Forsberg and Peter W. Sipkins, St. Paul, Minn., amicus curiae.

MEMORANDUM & ORDER GRANTING TEMPORARY INJUNCTION

DEVITT, Chief Judge.

University of Minnesota and some of its Regents, officers and faculty members (Minnesota), aggrieved by the action of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in placing its athletic teams on indefinite probation for refusal to find three student athletes ineligible, seeks injunctive and declaratory relief from the sanction, claiming impingement upon its constitutional rights.

Federal question jurisdiction is proper and state action is involved because of the pervasive influence exercised on NCAA affairs by its numerous state-supported university members. 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3), 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See Howard University v. NCAA, 166 U.S.App.D.C. 260, 510 F.2d 213 (1975) and cases there cited.

Upon the allegation that three of Minnesota's basketball players, Philip Saunders, Michael Thompson and David Winey violated certain NCAA eligibility rules, Minnesota afforded them due process hearings resulting in a finding by the Campus Committee on Student Behaviors (CCSB) and the Assembly Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics (ACIA), that the three did not violate the rules and should not be declared ineligible. Minnesota refused to declare them ineligible.

NCAA takes the position that it is within its exclusive authority to determine eligibility of student athletes. It viewed the three as ineligible and when Minnesota refused to so find them, NCAA placed all Minnesota athletic teams on probation. This suspension works undisputed hardships on Minnesota. Alleging irreparable injury, Minnesota seeks a temporary injunction restraining NCAA from imposing the suspension and declaring NCAA enforcement procedure void as against Minnesota.

There is no dispute as to the facts which are presented by the pleadings, affidavits and copies of reports and correspondence. Argument was heard November 29, 1976.

In summary, the University of Minnesota is one of more than 800 educational institutions, public and private, which are members of NCAA, an unincorporated voluntary association, which regulates the athletic activities of its member institutions, primarily in the interest of maintaining amateurism.

NCAA has a monopoly over major intercollegiate athletic programs in the United States. Virtually all colleges and universities with major intercollegiate athletic programs are members. NCAA negotiates exclusive television contracts with television networks for broadcasts of intercollegiate athletic contests and excludes non-members and members on probation from appearing on such telecasts. NCAA controls major post-season bowl games in football and national championship events in other sports and can exclude NCAA member institutions on probation from such events.

In July 1975 NCAA advised Minnesota of some 98 infractions of NCAA legislation by Minnesota basketball players and coach. Minnesota investigated the charges, found them to be true, and did not object to the penalties imposed upon its basketball team by NCAA.

One of the infractions alleged in NCAA confidential report # 111 was that student basketball players Saunders, Thompson and Winey had violated NCAA rules and that this required Minnesota to declare them ineligible. Each of these students receives a board, room and tuition athletic scholarship from the University of Minnesota. Responsive to the requirements of the Student Conduct Code (and in Thompson's case, in obedience to a Minnesota state court order) and in accordance with authority granted by NCAA, Minnesota afforded the players a hearing before the CCSB and ACIA. These committees found that the conduct of the players did not violate the eligibility rules and voted not to declare them ineligible.

The diverse findings of the NCAA and the Minnesota committees created an impasse. Correspondence followed between University of Minnesota President Magrath and NCAA officials, but no accord was reached. Minnesota asked the NCAA Committee on Infractions for a "new evidence" hearing. It was granted. NCAA persisted in its position that Minnesota must declare the players ineligible and as a sanction for refusing to have immediately declared the players ineligible, it placed the entire Minnesota athletic program on indefinite probation. Minnesota appealed to the NCAA council, the principal governing agency of NCAA which supported the Committee on Infractions.

This lawsuit followed.

The issue here is not one of absence of due process — each of the student athletes received a full and fair hearing and they had no complaint — but the issue is whether Minnesota's President Magrath was right in the choice he made between forces impelling him in opposite directions. If he followed the findings of the hearing committees, he could not declare the athletes ineligible, but that would be to ignore the findings of the NCAA's Infraction Committee and Minnesota's obligation as an NCAA member and thus incur sanctions of the serious kind later imposed. If he followed NCAA's direction, he would be ignoring the findings of the hearing committees, hearings required by law and authorized by NCAA, to the prejudice of the student athletes.

It is without question that the University has a contractual obligation to the NCAA which it must honor absent a superior legal duty to the contrary. The University contends that it does have a superior legal duty which, in this particular case, prevents it from fulfilling its duty to the NCAA. That superior legal duty is its constitutional obligation to afford its students the rights guaranteed to them by the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause. If the University is correct, no one would argue that a constitutionally imposed duty does not take precedence over one imposed by contract.

Critical to the determination of whether the University has such a constitutionally imposed duty is whether the opportunity to play intercollegiate basketball for the University of Minnesota is a property right which invokes the due process protection of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Although the Federal Constitution prohibits a state from depriving any person of property without due process of law, it is to state law to which the federal courts must usually turn for the definition of protected property interests. Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 572, 95 S.Ct. 729, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975), Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). Plaintiffs contend that Thompson v. Barnes, 294 Minn. 528, 200 N.W.2d 921 (1972) establishes that the opportunity to participate in intercollegiate athletics is a property right substantial enough to warrant due process protection. In Thompson, plaintiff, a high school athlete, was suspended by the Minnesota State High School League for one year from all interscholastic activities because he violated the League's alcohol rule. The district court denied plaintiff relief and granted defendants' motion for summary judgment. The Supreme Court, treating plaintiff's appeal as one from an order denying a temporary injunction, affirmed the district court decision that plaintiff had not established that the trial court abused its discretion. In footnote 11 to that opinion, the court indicated that "participation in interscholastic activities...