Hairston

Opinion by Judge HALL; Separate Concurrence by Judge TROTT.

Plaintiffs-appellants Russell Hairston, Frank Garcia, Jovan McCoy and Kyle Roberts appeal the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of defendant-appellee, the Paeific-10 Conference (“Pac-10”). The district court had jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 15 U.S.C. §§ 15 and 26, and 28 U.S.C. § 1367 . We have jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.

I.

Appellants are former and current University of Washington (“UW”) football players. Appellee, the Pacific-10 Conference (“Pac-10”), is an unincorporated association of ten universities situated in California, Arizona, Oregon and Washington, 1 formed for the purpose of “establishing an athletic program to be participated in by the members.”

On November 5, 1992, the Seattle Times reported that UWs star quarterback, Billy Joe Hobert, had received three loans total-ling $50,000 from an Idaho businessman. After investigating the allegations, UW officials suspended Hobert and declared him permanently ineligible to play amateur football. One month later, the Los Angeles Times published a series of articles alleging…

concurring in the result.

I concur wholeheartedly in Judge Hall’s excellent analysis of the merits of the appellants’ failed attempt to mount an antitrust case against the NCAA and the Pac-10. I write separately, however, to point out that there is yet another significant reason to affirm the district court’s dismissal of this case: Hairston and his colleagues manifestly lack antitrust standing to bring this lawsuit, and thus cannot even qualify as valid plaintiffs. By not deciding this threshold issue, *1321 I’m concerned that we might encourage other potential litigants to limber up their bats to take unwarranted swings at targets legally beyond their reach. My concern is aroused because we leave intact and on the books the district court’s holding that these plaintiffs do have antitrust standing, a holding which I respectfully believe is demonstrably erroneous. See Hairston v. Pacific-10 Conference, 893 F.Supp. 1485 (W.D.Wash.1994).

The district court’s flawed analysis may encourage antitrust lawsuits such as this one every time a player feels injured by a conference sanction. In my judgment, this case presents an appropriate opportunity to advise such potential litigants…