Associated Students, Inc. Of California State University-- Sacramento v. National Collegiate Athletic Association

This is an appeal from a decision and order of the district court granting a preliminary injunction prohibiting the defendants-appellants, National Collegiate Athletic Association, et al. (NCAA), from enforcing its freshman eligibility Rule 1.600, hereinafter set forth, only as to the plaintiffs-appellees Lopez and Martinez, and also restraining NCAA from penalizing the California State University at Sacramento (CSUS) for its failure to disqualify the plaintiffs from athletic participation for one year. The district court held that plaintiff Associated Students, Inc. did not have standing in this action, and did not grant the injunction as to the other nine individual plaintiffs for the reason that the year of ineligibility imposed against them had expired.

The district court held that the actions of NCAA, prohibited by the injunction, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In so holding, the district coúrt held that the NCAA’s enforcement activities were “state action” and therefore subject to the standards of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court also determined that the preliminary injunction would not alter the status…