The NCAA has agreed to strike down another one of its old rules in order to resolve another antitrust lawsuit against the organization, this time filed by tennis players who challenged NCAA restrictions on their earnings before college. The details were revealed in a federal court filing April 28 after the NCAA was initially sued by North Carolina women’s tennis player Reese Brantmeier in 2024.
As part of the proposed class-action settlement, the NCAA agreed to eliminate restrictions on pre-enrollment prize money for athletes in all sports, not just tennis. Former Texas tennis player Maya Joint also joined the case as a named plaintiff after being forced to forfeit much of the $147,000 in prize money she earned at the U.S. Open in order to maintain her NCAA eligibility in 2024.
“The proposed settlement is an extraordinary outcome for the Classes, and the injunctive relief obtained will positively impact future generations of student-athletes,” the plaintiffs said in their motion to approve the proposed settlement April 28.
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The NCAA also has agreed to pay a total damages settlement of $2.02 million, including a $10,000 service award to Joint and Brantmeier, plus $1.875 million in attorney’s fees and $425,000 in costs. Additionally, the NCAA has agreed to pay up to $250,000 toward settlement notice and administration costs.
The damages class includes NCAA tennis players who voluntarily forfeited prize money earned at a tennis tournament since March 2020, according to the filing on April 28.
Brantmeier’s initial antitrust complaint against the NCAA detailed how she had to forfeit most of her $48,913 in prize money from the U.S. Open in 2021 because of an NCAA rule that cracks down on such prize money earned before and during college. She also was forced to sit out of NCAA competition in the fall of 2022 because the NCAA challenged some of the expenses she submitted for her participation in that same event.
Prize money previously was taboo in the NCAA because the NCAA wanted to preserve its notion of “amateurism" for athletes instead of allowing them to earn money like professionals. In Brantmeier’s case, NCAA rules restricted what she could earn before enrolling in college, allowing her to accept no more than $10,000 in prize money on a total annual basis for all tennis competitions during 2021, when she was in high school, as well as reimbursement for undefined expenses associated with such competitions.
After college enrollment, her complaint noted the NCAA prohibits student-athletes from accepting prize money earned for their athletic performances except to cover “actual and necessary expenses.”
But times have changed. Starting in 2021, the NCAA was pressured into allowing athletes to receive money for their names, images and likenesses (NIL). Starting last year, the NCAA allowed schools to share revenue with athletes directly under the settlement terms of a different lawsuit brought by athletes who challenged NCAA restrictions on antitrust grounds.
In this case, a federal judge still must approve the settlement on a preliminary basis and then schedule a final hearing about it before final approval.
“Upon this Court’s final approval of the Settlement, the NCAA will be enjoined from reinstating the pre-college enrollment Prize Money Rules that existed prior to the Settlement,” said the plaintiffs’ motion filed April 28.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NCAA agrees to strike down rule to settle another antitrust lawsuit