The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) achieved a favorable ruling in the Southern District of Indiana in March 2016 when a federal judge denied a motion for class certification in the antitrust matter Rock v. NCAA. Our firm serves as the NCAA's local counsel for multiple, related antitrust matters. The Rock case involves the rules governing collegiate football scholarships.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt found that plaintiff could not satisfy the Seventh Circuit’s “weak” test for determining class ascertainability because the proposed class definitions were impermissibly vague and subjective. The NCAA also succeeded in showing that the plaintiff could not satisfy all of the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a) because the named plaintiff may not have satisfied the proposed class definition. Judge Pratt further held that the plaintiff lacked standing to seek injunctive relief and denied a motion for a newly named plaintiff to intervene.
