Parish v. National Collegiate Athletic Association

361 F. Supp. 1220, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12473
District Court, W.D. Louisiana·Decided July 31, 1973·No. Civ. A. 18733·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

RULING

DAWKINS, Chief Judge.

The original plaintiffs here are student basketball players at Centenary College, located in Shreveport, Louisiana. They have instituted this action requesting that a preliminary and permanent injunction be issued against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its officials to prevent enforcement of a ruling made by them which in effect declares plaintiffs ineligible to compete in interscholastic athletic competition at Centenary College.

We granted a temporary restraining order and extended it once, as allowed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 1 The College team not having been invited to any post-season tournament, the order was allowed to expire and a date was set for hearing upon the merits of the application for a declaratory judgment and a preliminary injunction.

Thereafter, defendants filed motions to dismiss, based upon several grounds, which were denied by opinion rendered March 27, 1973, D.C., 361 F.Supp. 1214. Subsequently, a hearing on the declaratory and injunctive aspects of the case was held April 4 and 5, 1973.

At that hearing defendants, following presentation of plaintiffs’ evidence, moved to dismiss for lack of a substantial federal question and for failure to prove irreparable injury. This motion was referred to the merits.

These student athletes had been recruited by Centenary College to play basketball on athletic scholarships. The primary plaintiff, Robert L. Parish, as later will be shown, probably was the most sought-after college basketball prospect in the nation at the end of his last high school year.

Plaintiffs, as noted, request declaratory and injunctive relief against defendant to prevent NCAA from applying the “1.600 Rule” against them and declaring them ineligible to play on the Centenary basketball team. They seek injunctive relief against NCAA from applying its January 9, 1973, resolution, as it applies to Centenary and them insofar as it required Centenary to find them ineligible to play. Specifically, they request that we declare, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, that the NCAA 1.600 Rule, contained in Article 4-6-(b) of its by-laws, is unlawful and unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution, as it affects them; and that we enjoin defendants from applying the Rule as barring Centenary’s intercollegiate teams, or any other teams with which plaintiffs may associate, and to permit the College and any of its other intercollegiate athletic teams to participate, with full eligibility, in NCAA championship and other post-season games in the future.

At the outset, we ordered Centenary to be made a party plaintiff, because we felt its interests directly were involved. Centenary is a private four-year college in Shreveport and participates in several intercollegiate sports, principally basketball.

At all times, Centenary was and is a member of NCAA, an unincorporated association of colleges, universities and other institutions of higher learning. It is composed of some 750 member institutions and publishes annually a manual which includes the constitution, by-laws, *1222 interpretations, executive regulations, recommended policies, enforcement procedures, committee membership, and other rules involving its members. Approximately one-half of its members are State institutions, including those in Louisiana. This Association sponsors virtually all regional and national collegiate athletic competitions, including national collegiate championship events, invitational and post-season meets and tournaments and certain televised collegiate games or contests.

One of the specifically promulgated goals of NCAA is to insure that college athletes are an integral part of the student body of the college or university they attend. 2 The by-law enacted to attain this objective was 4-6-(b)-(l), which is known as the 1.600 Rule. 3 This by-law was amended at the NCAA annual convention January 13, 1973, by changing its requirement that a student predict a 1.600 grade-point average before being declared by his college or university to be eligible to participate in intercollegiate athletics. This requirement was that a student need only graduate from high school'with a minimum 2.00 grade-point average (on a 4.00 level) in order to be declared eligible to participate in athletics. The 1.600 Rule provided in pertinent part:

“A member institution shall not be eligible to enter a team or individual competitors in an NCAA sponsored meet, unless the institution in the conduct of all of its intercollegiate athletic programs: (1) limits ... eligibility for participation in athletics or in organized athletic practice sessions during the first year in residence to student-athletes who have a predicted minimum grade point average of at least 1.600 (based on a minimum of 4.000) as determined by the Association’s national prediction tables or Association-approved conference or institutional tables.”

Under the prediction tables, a student athlete’s grade-point is predicted on the basis of a formula utilizing either high school grades or rank in high school class and a score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT). It is quite apparent that one must score sufficiently high enough on either test to meet the minimum requirement of the 1.600 Rule.

Article 6, Section 2, NCAA’s Constitution, empowers its council'to make “official interpretations” of the Constitution and By-Laws, which are binding upon the entire membership after publication and circulation. The official interpretation of the Rule is designated as Official Interpretation 418 (O.I. 418):

“A student athlete who practices or participates while ineligible under the provisions of By-Law 4-6-(b) shall be charged with the loss of one year of practice and varsity eligibility by his institution for each year gained improperly which shall be the next year the student is in attendance. . . . ”

It was brought to our attention at the hearing that there are some members of NCAA who have chosen not to follow the 1.600 Rule, and still continue as members in good standing in that organization, notwithstanding that their athletic teams are banned from participating in NCAA sponsored events, including collegiate championships and postseason competition, and from appearing on any NCAA sponsored nationally televised events.

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Parish v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 361 F. Supp. 1220, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12473 (W.D. La. 1973).

361 F. Supp. 1220 (Parish v. National Collegiate Athletic Association) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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