Ivy Athletes Sue More than Policy Prohibiting Sports Scholarships

On Thursday, 15-seed Princeton males pulled out a thrilling upset more than No. two Arizona. 

The Tigers, who will advance to the Round of 32 on Saturday, are the only group in the men’s tournament devoid of any players on athletic scholarship. Ivy League schools prohibit sports scholarships and only offer you athletes “need-based” economic help. 

As if March couldn’t get any madder, two basketball players filed a lawsuit against Ivy League schools more than this policy just two weeks ago. 

• The lawsuit, which is in search of class certification, was filed by present Brown women’s basketball player Grace Kirk and former men’s player Tamenang Choh. 
• The players argued in a complaint that the policy violates the Sherman Antitrust Act by illegally price tag-fixing the worth of athletes’ athletic competitors. 
• When the suit acknowledges that players get economic help, it generally does not cover the expense of attendance — which an athletic scholarship could.

“The Ivy League Agreement, in quick, has stymied competitors that would have lowered, and would reduced, the net expense of attendance,” the complaint study. “These injuries are especially unfair provided what is necessary of Ivy League Athletes and how their solutions advantage their schools and the Ivy League brand.”

The complaint also referenced two other current antitrust situations associated to college sports, O’Bannon v. NCAA and NCAA v. Alston — which each discovered that specific compensation restrictions in the NCAA have been illegal.

“The Ivy League athletics model is constructed upon the foundational principle that student-athletes should really be representative of the wider student physique, which includes the chance to get have to have-primarily based economic help,” the Ivy League stated in a statement.