Court throws out NCAA Final Four "lottery" ruling

Published>Tue, Oct 19 10 01:16 AM

A federal appeals court halted a lawsuit accusing the National Collegiate Athletic Association of running an illegal lottery in allocating seats to basketball's Final Four and other popular sports tournaments.

Citing potential "far-reaching effects" from a ruling on the distribution of coveted tickets, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago threw out on Monday its July ruling that revived a proposed nationwide class-action lawsuit by fans.

The Seventh Circuit asked the Indiana Supreme Court to assess whether NCAA ticketing constituted an unlawful lottery under that state's law. The NCAA is based in Indianapolis.

At issue is a longtime NCAA policy of forcing fans to pay in advance for tickets they wanted, and assessing nonrefundable service fees even if they lost.

The NCAA had since 1994 used this means to award tickets for such events as the Division I men's and women's basketball Final Four and hockey Frozen Four. It changed its policy this year, but had sought for the July ruling to be reconsidered.

Calling the question of whether the policy constituted a lottery "a close one," the Seventh Circuit said its holding "could have far-reaching effects on sports-ticket-distribution systems utilized by the NCAA and others."

Rob Carey, a partner at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP representing the plaintiffs, in an interview said he is confident that Indiana law "does not permit the NCAA profiting by having losers pay for winners in the sale of tickets."

NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The case is George et al v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 09-3667.

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