Rice's Joseph Agnew couldn't make a tackle on the field against Texas Tech, and he certainly won't tackle the NCAA in the courtroom.
If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em. At least that is the approach taken by a former Rice University football player. On Monday, The Owls’ Joseph Agnew sued the NCAA over its policy of limiting athletic scholarships to one-year renewable rewards.
The background is quite simple. Agnew, who filed a class-action in California, believes the NCAA and its member schools are violating antitrust laws by limiting the number of scholarships each team can provide. As stated in his complaint,
“By unlawfully agreeing not to offer multi-year athletics-based discounts, the NCAA and its member institutions have ensured that student-athletes who are injured or who simply do not meet the school’s expectations can be cut from a team and their scholarships terminated…”
Basically Agnew did not live up to all the hype when he was highly recruited out of Southlake Carroll (Texas) back in 2006. After two seasons at Rice, coaches told him his athleticism could stand improvement and his scholarship would not be renewed. He appealed the decision and was granted a scholarship for one more year, but he did not receive a dime his senior season. Now that Agnew graduated, he is ready to sue.
The message to be taken is playing football is not a right. The school is offering you a scholarship based on your performance. If you can’t hack it, you don’t get paid. It’s just like in everyday life and any normal job. My advice to Agnew, you should have hit the weights, trained harder, and cracked open a book, because clearly your were not NFL bound.
The NCAA responded by stating athletic scholarships are merit based that require academic achievement and on-the-field expectations, an area where the injured prone Agnew failed to deliver.
The complaint can be found at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s PACER site for a nominal fee.
