Nyzier Fourqurean v. National Collegiate Athletic Association

Madison, Wisconsin civil rights lawyers represented the Plaintiff who sued on a Sherman Act anti-trust theory.



Fourqurean, a member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison ("UW-Madison”)'s football team, contends that the National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA”) has unreasonably restrained trade, in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act, by restricting student-athletes to four seasons of intercollegiate competition per sport—an aspect of the NCAA's Five-Year Rule. He sought, and thedistrict court granted, a preliminary injunction enjoining the NCAA from enforcing its Five-Year Rule to prevent him from playing a fifth season of college football.



The district court reasoned that the Supreme Court's decision in NCAA v. Alston, 594 U.S. 69 (2021), established that

men's NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ("FBS”) football is a relevant market, and because the Five-Year Rule

excludes Fourqurean from this market, it has likely anticompetitive effects. The court thus concluded that Fourqurean is

likely to succeed on the merits of his § 1 claim.



Market definition, however, was not at issue in Alston. Fourqurean must independently define the relevant market,

which he has not attempted to do. Furthermore, even if men's NCAA Division I FBS football is the relevant market, Fourqurean's exclusion from this market alone does not suffice to show likely anticompetitive effects.

Fourqurean failed to meet his burden of establishing some likelihood that he will prevail on the merits of his § 1 claim, and the district court should not have granted his motion for a preliminary injunction.