The Daily Pennsylvanian dives into the best graduating women’s athletes for the Class of 2024.
Credit: Sonali ChandyA lawsuit against the Ivy League over its ban on athletic scholarships was dismissed in federal court last week.
The case, originally brought by Brown basketball players Tamenang Choh and Grace Kirk, alleged that the ban on scholarships restrains market trade in college athletics and therefore violates federal antitrust law. U.S. District Judge Alvin Thompson dismissed the suit, stating that the Ivy League itself did not constitute a specific, relevant market.
“At best, the plaintiffs’ allegations of anticompetitive effects relate to just some market participants, not effects in the market as a whole,” Thompson wrote in the ruling.
The lawsuit sought monetary damages for the plaintiffs, as well as an injunction that would force the league’s constituent schools to begin administering scholarships. Pending an appeal, which the plaintiffs’ attorney Eric Cramer said that they are considering, the ban will live on.
The Ancient Eight’s scholarship refusal is rooted in the conference's policy against administering merit-based financial aid. Instead, the Ivy League only participates in need-based financial aid, which it offers to all students who require it, including athletes.
Critics of the league’s policy have argued that it places an undue financial burden on athletes.
“I would love to see the Ivy League offer athletic scholarships,” former Penn men’s basketball guard Clark Slajchert, who now plays at USC, said. “Either scholarships, or expand financial aid packages … I was fortunate enough that [the policy] wasn’t detrimental to me, but I had teammates whose families were stretched thin.”
Slajchert also said that the policy is indicative of where the league’s priorities lie, claiming that the schools don’t “value their athletes enough to give them scholarships.”
In the conference’s own legal defense against the lawsuit in 2023, it wrote that the ban stemmed from a desire to “foster campus cultures that do not prioritize athletics over other aspects of their educational mission.”
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