NCAA sued over junior league hockey players’ ‘boycott’

The antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA expanded this week when 19-year-old Ontario hockey player Rylan Masterson sued the NCAA and 10 universities in federal court in New York for “boycotting” players in the Canadian Hockey League.

In today’s world, where college athletes can earn millions of dollars through name, image and likeness deals and former European players can play Division I hockey, banning players who earned modest money as teenagers playing in the CHL’s junior leagues seems outdated and just as vulnerable to legal challenge.

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Masterson, a defenseman who most recently played for the Fort Erie Meteors of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, became ineligible to play in the NCAA in 2022 when he played two exhibition games for the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL, part of the CHL. CHL players are ineligible to play in the NCAA because they are considered “professional athletes” and therefore not amateurs.

Masterson is a high school graduate who would like to play DI hockey, preferably at a college near his home in Ontario. The 10 universities named as defendants are Boston College, Boston University and Niagara University.

Basic Antitrust Theory in Masterton vs NCAA is the same as the one used in O’BannoN, Alston, House and other lawsuits challenging amateurism rules. Masterson alleges that the NCAA and its member schools, which are competing businesses, have conspired to prevent them from competing for athletes. Those athletes, in turn, suffer financial and professional losses when potential competitors agree not to compete or to compete less aggressively than the market would otherwise encourage.

The NCAA rule disqualifying a player who has played a CHL game is presented as preventing “competition between the CHL and NCAA for the best players.” This supposedly stifles compensation for those players and puts “16-year-olds in the impossible position of having to decide, at such a young age, whether they ever want to play Division I hockey.” Fans and consumers also experience a form of harm, as DI hockey would be better if CHL players were allowed to participate.

Masterson is represented by Richard A. Lafont and other attorneys from two law firms, Freedman Normand Friedland LLP and Berger Montague PC. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo, whose courtroom is located in the Robert H. Jackson United States Courthouse in Buffalo, N.Y.

Masterson is seeking to have his lawsuit certified as a class action on behalf of anyone who played in the CHL from August 12, 2020 to the present, or who attended college between August 12, 2020 and the present after playing in the CHL. There are 60 teams in the three leagues (OHL, QMJHL, and WHL) that make up the CHL, meaning the class, if recognized, would include thousands of players. Masterson is seeking an injunction that would prohibit the NCAA from enforcing the rule and for a jury to award monetary damages, which could be tripled under antitrust law.

The CHL players’ salaries are important in this case because they are about whether or not these players are “professional athletes.” Masterson emphasizes that CHL players “do not receive a salary.” Instead, they receive a stipend that is intended to cover living expenses—not wages, NIL payments, or other compensatory purposes—and does not exceed $600 per month. Masterson further notes that the stipend is not treated as income for tax purposes, but is instead classified as an expense allowance.

While there are several possible paths to the NHL, Masterson says the CHL and DI hockey teams “are the primary providers” and provide players with “the best chance to make a career in hockey.” The complaint indicates that more than 50% of NHL players have played in the CHL, while about 30% have played DI hockey. Another path to the NHL is the United States Hockey League, another junior league, but Masterson says its quality of play “is consistently considered lower than the CHL” and is more accurately viewed as a provider for the DI.

Masterson argues that the NCAA’s ban on CHL players is nonsensical because the NCAA allows other professional hockey players to compete.

For that purpose, the complaint named BU defenseman Tom Willander, whom the Vancouver Canucks selected in the 11th round.^t overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. Before joining the Terriers, Willander was a professional hockey player in Sweden.

The complaint also mentions that USHL players who are NCAA eligible receive similar scholarships to CHL players, and the NCAA allows athletes in other sports “to receive significant compensation without losing NCAA eligibility.” The complaint notes that tennis players can earn up to $10,000 per year without losing eligibility, and other NCAA athletes, such as swimmers Katie Ledecky and Joseph Schooling, have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars while maintaining eligibility.

The NCAA, Masterson says, considered dropping the boycott but didn’t. He says that in May, the NCAA coaches held their annual meeting in Florida and discussed the legal issues surrounding the boycott but decided not to vote to drop it.

The NCAA will respond to the complaint and seek its dismissal. It is expected to argue that the rule promotes amateur goals by distinguishing collegiate athletes, who are also students, from professional athletes.

But that line of argument has failed in recent NCAA cases and seems particularly vulnerable to criticism in this instance.

“A boycott of CHL players makes little sense given the enormous amounts of NIL that current college athletes earn and the NCAA eligibility of players who played professional hockey outside of North America,” attorney and retired hockey player Jonathan Calla said in a telephone interview.

In 1994-95, Calla scored 103 points for the Cowichan Valley Capitals of the British Columbia Hockey League before the forward joined Northeastern University to continue his hockey career and education. He is currently a principal at Goulston & Storrs in Boston and serves as outside general counsel for Winners Alliance, a global commercial solution focused on athletes in group licensing, and the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

Calla stressed the importance of providing young players and their families with options.

“Historically, elite teenage hockey players and their families have been faced with a decision that, if chosen by the CHL, would result in losing the opportunity to earn a college scholarship and play DI hockey at an NCAA school. Given the changes in college sports, the OHL’s London Knights player should be able to continue his hockey path at Boston University.”

Calla also believes that lifting the boycott would mean the DI hockey team could have better players.

“NCAA hockey will become more competitive because there will be more players to choose from, which will help all players in NCAA hockey prepare for the NHL.

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