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A women’s basketball player at Grambling State University in Louisiana is accusing the Indianapolis-based NCAA of discriminating against historically Black colleges and universities in a federal lawsuit filed Aug. 4.
The student-athlete, Brenda McKinney, accuses the NCAA of using a formula for its Academic Performance Program — which measures a team’s academic success — that discriminates against Black student-athletes at HBCUs.
“The NCAA’s design and implementation of the APP perpetuates a system that punishes Black student-athletes at HBCUs because of the HBCUs’ unique and historical role in the education of Black people within the systemic vestiges of discrimination,” the complaint says.
The APP builds on other academic requirements put in place by the NCAA and, according to the complaint, is comprised of a short-term assessment of academic progress and a long-term assessment of graduation rates.
The proposed class-action complaint says that despite knowing the graduation success rate for Black student-athletes was 20-30 percentage points lower than white student-athletes in the leadup to implementation in the early 2000s, the NCAA “deliberately chose” to rely on that metric.
Penalties for an APP score that’s too low range from restricting a team’s practice time to bans on postseason competition.
The lawsuit says an HBCU team is 43 times more likely to receive a postseason ban than a team at a predominantly white institution.
The APP has been updated in various ways throughout the years, which the lawsuit downplays.
“Although the NCAA claims to have made numerous ‘reforms’ to its academic measurements throughout several decades,” the complaint says, “it is an intentional decision to consistently acknowledge reliable data that its ‘reforms’ hobble and undermine the path of the Black student-athlete at HBCUs but nonetheless allow the discrimination to continue.”
The two-count lawsuit, which brings civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3), says the NCAA is interfering with student-athletes’ ability to make and enforce contracts, referencing the national letter of intent they sign to play at a school.
That’s because postseason bans deny student-athletes the chance to further their athletic careers and gain exposure through media, the complaint says.
“Black student-athletes were not provided full information about the potential consequences of the NCAA’s discrimination against Black student-athletes at HBCUs,” the complaint says. “As a result, unbeknownst to them, they entered their Contracts with substantial disadvantages and effects.”
The lawsuit’s proposed class is “all current Black student-athletes participating in Division I HBCU athletic teams during the academic year 2022-23 through the date of class certification.”
There are 23 Division I HBCUs, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit — Brenda McKinney, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 1:23-cv-1372 — was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division.
McKinney was among eight players to sign to Grambling State’s 2023 recruiting class. She transferred from Chipola College in Florida.
Indiana Lawyer has reached out to the NCAA for comment.
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