A top women’s tennis player at the University of North Carolina has filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA seeking class-action status and requesting the court strike down rules that prevent athletes from accepting prize money from the U.S. Open and other outside sporting events.
Reese Brantmeier, whose sophomore season was cut short due to a knee injury, filed the suit Monday in North Carolina.
“This lawsuit challenges the NCAA’s arbitrary and anticompetitive Prize Money restrictions, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief so that student-athletes competing in Individual Sports may finally retain full and just compensation for Prize Money earned through their athletic performance outside of NCAA competitions,” the lawsuit states, as reported by USA TODAY.
As reported by Brent Schrotenboer, Brantmeier's complaint details 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 was even 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.
Her complaint points out how the NCAA’s restriction of prize money in these cases appears to be arbitrary and unfair in light of other NCAA rules that now allow athletes to receive money for their name, image and likenesse, Schrotenboer reported, adding that the NCAA even allows money to be paid to Olympic athletes in college under the Operation Gold program.
NCAA rules restricted what Brantmeier 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, the lawsuit notes the NCAA prohibits student-athletes from accepting prize money earned for their athletic performances except to cover “actual and necessary expenses.”
Another North Carolina tennis player, Fiona Crawley, wasn't allowed to accept about $81,000 in prize money from the U.S. Open last year without losing her eligibility to play collegiate tennis.
“While Brantmeier’s Prize Money pales in comparison to the pay-for-play amounts received by many student-athletes in profit generating sports, these amounts are even more critical to athletes in non-revenue, Individual Sports where professional opportunities to earn compensation after college may be fleeting and where the highest and most-prestigious levels of competition are open to student-athletes,” the lawsuit states, as reported by USA TODAY.
According to Schrotenboer, the lawsuit seeks an injunction to restrain the NCAA from enforcing ”unlawful and anticompetitive rules that restrict the ability of student-athletes, before or during their collegiate careers, to accept Prize Money in connection with non-NCAA competitions.”
