From Ed O’Bannon to Shawne Alston to the attorneys general of Virginia and Tennessee, plaintiffs who bring antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA have forced the association to relax amateurism rules.
Rylan Masterton might soon see his name added to the list of those who compel NCAA reforms. If that happens, the 19-year-old Ontario hockey player could have Braxton Whitehead, a 20-year-old on the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats, and Arizona State University to thank.
Whitehead, ESPN reports, has made a verbal commitment to join ASU’s Division I program next year despite the fact that a current NCAA bylaw renders major junior hockey players ineligible. The move comes in the wake of Masterton becoming the latest antitrust plaintiff to target the NCAA.
As Sportico detailed, Masterson sued the NCAA and 10 universities in a New York federal court last month over a “boycott” of Canadian Hockey League players. He hopes for his case to be certified as a class action. The defenseman is ineligible to play NCAA D-I hockey because in 2022 he played two exhibition games for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, part of the CHL, and that made him a pro athlete in the eyes of the NCAA.
Masterson’s basic argument is the defendants, which as competing businesses can run afoul of antitrust laws in limiting how they compete—including for payers—have unlawfully conspired to exclude CHL players.
That policy denies players of educational and athletic opportunities and is arguably hypocritical given that the NCAA permits former pro hockey players on European teams to play D-I hockey and allows college athletes to sign lucrative, pro sports-like NIL deals. The policy also effectively forces teenage hockey players to make life-altering choices about whether they want to preserve the chance to play D-I hockey years later but give up a valuable experience to develop their skills. In addition, consumers and hockey fans are arguably harmed since D-I hockey would be bolstered by the infusion of more talented players.
The move by Whitehead and ASU raises the stakes for the NCAA to resolve the legal dispute prior to the fall of 2025, when Whitehead would enroll at ASU. According to ESPN, both Whitehead and ASU are “confident those restrictions will be lifted before he joins the Sun Devils in 2025.”
Antitrust class actions, as shown in O’Bannon and Alston, can take nearly a decade to resolve. For the litigation to be resolved by next fall, the case would need to proceed quickly and the NCAA would need to win a motion to dismiss (which Masterston would in turn appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit). Alternatively, the parties could reach a settlement where the NCAA drops the bylaw and agrees to monetarily compensate Masterson and possibly other players who have been harmed by the bylaw.
“With CHL players prepared to pursue NCAA hockey opportunities, and with NCAA programs prepared to pursue elite level players from the CHL—this will be the first of many,” attorney and retired hockey player Jonathan Calla predicted in a phone interview.
Calla, a director at Goulston & Storrs in Boston and outside general counsel for Winners Alliance and the Professional Women’s Hockey League, tallied 103 points for the Cowichan Valley Capitals in the British Columbia Hockey League in 1994-95 before the forward joined Northeastern University.
“The expansion of the player pool (that is, the Elite Young Player Services Market) will make NCAA Hockey more competitive,” Calla said, “resulting in more NHL-ready players from the NCAA.”
