NCAA and Volunteer Coaches Settle for nearly $50 Million

The Payout

California federal judge William B. Shubb called the settlement amount a “strong result for the class.” It will benefit hundreds of baseball coaches who were volunteers at Division I schools — the top tier for college athletics — from 2018 to 2023. The payout — some $32.8 million will go to class members– would provide assistant college baseball coaches around $36,000 for each year they served in a volunteer role. Coaches who served multiple years at larger schools are expected to receive six-figure sums, according to Courthouse News. Shubb indicated support for the settlement and questioned the factors an expert used to determine the payout each class member would receive. The plaintiffs’ attorney said that the expert used 10 factors, such as geographic region and what peer schools were doing, when determining monetary damages.

NCAA Antitrust Lawsuit

Taylor Smart and Michael Hacker filed a California labor lawsuit in the Eastern District of California against the NCAA back in 2022. According to Front Office Sports, Smart was a volunteer baseball coach at Arkansas, while Hacker coached at UC Davis in the same role. They claimed that the NCAA conspired with its member schools to unlawfully fix the number of assistant coaches college baseball teams could hire at the Division I level, which resulted in volunteer coaches not being paid. (The lawsuit says the NCAA mainly functioned as the sole employer of baseball coaches, which gave it significant bargaining power. Reuters reported that the NCAA violated federal antitrust law by fixing their compensation at zero.

In 2023, the NCAA tried to get the lawsuit transferred to another state or dismiss it altogether, but Judge Shubb refused. He said the NCAA hadn’t convinced him that litigating in California was enough of a problem. Next up, the coaches asked the court to certify their class. After two years of litigation, an agreement was reached.

Shubb is presiding over a similar lawsuit from other volunteer coaches in the NCAA for sports that include soccer, swimming, and track and field, among other Olympic sports. Filed in March 2023, the plaintiffs in that lawsuit also argue that the NCAA and member schools fixed compensation for a category of coaches at zero. Smart and Hacker’s attorney said their lawsuit was filed months before the other claim, which excluded baseball coaches and referred to the Smart and Hacker case as the reason.

NCAA Volunteer Coach Rule

The NCAA repealed its volunteer coaching rule in Division 1 athletics after the lawsuit was filed, effective July 2023. Its rules, which were implemented in 1992, were designed to distinguish between paid and unpaid coaching roles and to ensure compliance with NCAA recruiting and eligibility policies. Its regulations limited the involvement of volunteer coaches, mainly to “prevent recruiting violations and maintain competitive fairness”, according to the NCAA.  Since 2023, coaches previously designated “volunteer” can now be paid, receive benefits, and are allowed to recruit off-campus. The NCAA rules now focus on limiting the number of countable coaches in each sport.