More than 7,700 men and women who served as “volunteer” coaches for Division I sports teams between March 17, 2019, and June 30, 2023, can expect at least $5,000 and on average $26,988.66 in payments after a California federal judge this week granted final approval of a $303 million settlement.
The agreement closes Ray v. NCAA, an antitrust class action on behalf of college coaches who were classified as volunteers and insist they “worked” what amounted to a full-time job. Baseball was excluded from Ray since another class action that led to a $50 million settlement, Smart v. NCAA, addressed volunteer baseball coaches.
In 2023, the NCAA lifted a bylaw that capped the number of coaches. Yet for years, coaches who maintain they spent more than 40 hours a week coaching players, assisting in strategy sessions and traveling with the team were denied salary, wages, health insurance, housing, retirement benefits and other types of compensation typically enjoyed by employee coaches.
Those coaches gained experience, but the lack of pay not only cost them money but also likely lowered their pay for future coaching jobs, since coaching paychecks often reflect pay levels at previous jobs. Their basic antitrust allegation was that NCAA member schools fixed prices by limiting the number of slots for coach employees, thus suppressing opportunities and wages.
