NCPA Files Civil Rights Complaint with Dept. of Education Against Division 1 Schools

The National College Players Association filed a civil rights complaint against Division I member schools with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, claiming universities are colluding to limit the pay of players in predominantly Black sports.

NCPA executive director Ramogi Huma released a statement Tuesday highlighting the discrepancies: 

"This multibillion college sports enterprise imposes discriminatory practices that disproportionately harms Black athletes, while predominantly White coaches and administrators make millions of dollars. College athletes throughout predominantly White sports receive fair market compensation, but athletes in the only predominantly Black sports (FBS football and men's and women's basketball) do not. All college athletes should have the opportunity to receive fair market pay. This can happen without cutting any sports. Colleges would just have to spend a bit less on coaches' salaries and luxury facilities."

The NCPA has been increasingly aggressive in its goal to have college athletes recognized as employees and compensated accordingly. The organization filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in February for unfair labor practices, claiming the NCAA's use of "student-athletes" was an attempt to work around paying players.

The NCAA's business model has been dealt several blows in recent years, starting with the Ed O'Bannon case related to the use of names, images and likenesses of players. 

While the NCAA has since started to allow players to make money on NIL deals, the NCPA seeks to have athletes properly compensated for its share of the entire revenue pie. The NCAA and member conferences still take the entire profit from television deals and other licensing deals while the players receive no compensation.

A Supreme Court ruling against the NCAA (NCAA v. Alston), which was related to education-related compensation, opened the door for potential future challenges of the current business model. The NCPA says Judge Brett Kavanaugh's opinion in the Alston case supports their push for athlete compensation: "The NCAA and its member colleges are suppressing the pay of student athletes who collectively generate billions of dollars in revenues for colleges every year ... But the student athletes who generate the revenues, many of whom are African American and from lower-income backgrounds, end up with little or nothing."

In addition to athlete compensation, the NCPA has been pushing for increased transparency in Title IX cases, improvements to health and safety conditions for athletes and several other matters. 

The complaint largely focuses on football, men's basketball and women's basketball, sports that typically generate the most money for conferences while being played by predominantly Black athletes.