SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - An antitrust lawsuit against it targets a "commonsense" rule limiting the amount of paid coaches baseball teams can have, the NCAA says.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association filed a motion to dismiss Feb. 24 in California federal court as it fights a proposed class action brought by two volunteer coaches who wish to be paid.
"In sports, teams must play by the same rules," the motion says. "Sports leagues of all kinds have rules about how many players and coaches each team can have. The NCAA's Division I is no different.
"The colleges and universities that compete against each other in Division I decided that each Division I baseball team may have only three paid coaches."
Taylor Smart an Michael Hacker filed suit Nov. 29 alleging violations of the Sherman Act. They allege the NCAA has used an "illegal buyer's-side monopsony" through fixing the compensation of a certain category of college baseball coaches, which requires them to provide their services for free.
Smart, of the University of Arkansas, and Hacker, of the University of California, both claim they provided "valuable coaching skills" for positions that amounted to full-time jobs yet received no compensation.
The three-paid-coaches rule restricts competition in the labor market, they say. The NCAA argues each plaintiff agreed to volunteer their services and were hired by universities but now seek compensation from the NCAA.
"Plaintiffs assert in conclusory terms that they would have earned more if the NCAA's bylaws permitted Division I baseball teams to pay four coaches rather than three," the NCAA says.
"However, Plaintiffs do not allege facts regarding why or how that would be so. Critically, Plaintiffs do not allege that the universities that hired them as volunteer coaches (or any other Division I college or university) would have hired them as paid coaches if the NCAA's bylaws permitted it."