Canadian junior hockey player Rylan Masterson filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the NCAA and 10 universities on Monday night, alleging that the NCAA is violating antitrust laws by barring any player who has appeared in a major junior hockey game from also playing in the NCAA.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, alleges that the NCAA and U.S. universities are anticompetitive by allowing the rule.
The NCAA has deemed all players competing in the Canadian Hockey League (comprising the OHL, WHL and QMJHL) ineligible for the NCAA because there are players on those teams who have signed professional contracts with NHL teams. Section 12.2.3.2 of the NCAA Bylaws states that “a person shall not be eligible to participate in intercollegiate competition in a sport if he or she has ever competed on a professional team.”
Masterson, 19, has played his last three seasons for the Fort Erie Meteors of the Ontario Junior Hockey League and was named captain in September 2023. In 2022, Masterson appeared in two preseason games with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL; that season alone was enough to cost him future NCAA eligibility.
The proposed lawsuit names the NCAA along with Canisius University, Niagara University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Boston College, Boston University, the University of Denver, Quinnipiac University, the University of Notre Dame Du Lac, Stonehill College and the University of St. Thomas.
Masterson argues in the suit that even professional athletes who have received financial compensation (such as swimmer Katie Ledecky) still retain their NCAA eligibility. The suit also notes that Boston College's Tom Willander played professionally in Sweden and was also allowed to dress for the NCAA.
In the lawsuit, Masterson describes that “this plan [referred to herein as the ‘boycott’] “The boycott prevents competition between the CHL and NCAA for the best players and therefore artificially suppresses player compensation and creates less competitive leagues. Not only that, the boycott also puts 16-year-olds in the impossible position of deciding, at that young age, whether they will ever want to play Division I hockey. It is illegal per se under antitrust laws, including because it constitutes a group boycott.”
The NCAA last reviewed its policies in 2023 and determined there was a legal vulnerability in a potential “boycott” of Canadian youth players. Masterson’s lawsuit describes how the NCAA told his coaches that the decision to end the boycott was theirs to make. If enough coaches voted in favor, changes could be made. But so far, coaches have refused to vote.
At a meeting in May 2024, the lawsuit claims, the coaches met again about the boycott and a committee was created to monitor whether there were any legal pushback against the rules in the future.
If Masterson's lawsuit is successful, it could change the way youth hockey works in the coming years by allowing players to play hockey at both the college and university levels.
