North Carolina AG joins lawsuit seeking to strike down NCAA transfer rule

North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein has joined a federal antitrust lawsuit challenging the NCAA transfer eligibility rule, saying it illegally restrains college athletes’ ability to move to another school and immediately compete.

Stein said Thursday he was one of seven state attorneys general involved in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.

“We’re suing the NCAA over its illegal transfer rule,” Stein said in an N&O interview. “The rule flaunts federal antitrust law and is an illegal restraint of trade on student-athletes. We’re seeking the court to strike down the rule immediately so that basketball players caught up in its web, here in North Carolina and across the country, can get on the court.”

Stein joined Gov. Roy Cooper this year in writing letters to the NCAA and publicly advocating for North Carolina wide receiver Devontez “Tez” Walker. A two-time transfer, the Charlotte native was denied immediate eligibility at UNC after leaving Kent State before finally being granted a waiver in October that allowed him to play the remainder of the 2023 season.

Under NCAA rules, an athlete who is an undergraduate can transfer one time and be immediately eligible, but if a two-time transfer is required to sit out a year unless receiving a waiver. Graduate transfers also are immediately eligible.

Stein recently wrote to the NCAA urging it to reconsider the decision to deny Wake Forest basketball player Efton Reid a waiver after Reid transferred from Gonzaga to help care for his mother. The NCAA reversed its decision on Tuesday and Reid, a 7-foot center, played Wednesday and had 12 points and 14 rebounds in a 76-57 win over Rutgers.

N.C. State men’s basketball player Kam Woods is a two-time transfer who has been awaiting a decision from the NCAA on his waiver. Woods transferred to NCSU from North Carolina A&T.

Walker’s situation brought national headlines to UNC and head coach Mack Brown, whose comments blistered the NCAA for initially not allowing Walker to play. Walker enrolled at N.C. Central, was a part of the NCCU program, but did not play for the Eagles after their season was canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walker played two seasons at Kent State before transferring to UNC, and UNC officials believed he strongly qualified for an NCAA waiver to the two-time transfer rule.

In the lawsuit, Stein joined the attorneys general from Ohio, West Virginia, Colorado, Illinois, Tennessee and New York.

“I’m not trying to strike down the NCAA in its entirety,” Stein said Thursday. “I’m just trying to make sure its rules don’t violate the law.”