Federal Judge Yvette Kane has dismissed Pennsylvania Governor Corbett’s antitrust suit against the NCAA. The NCAA filed a motion to dismiss the case by arguing that the complaints made by Governor Corbett do not fit within parameters of antitrust jurisprudence. Judge Kane agreed and referred to Governor Corbett’s lawsuit as a “Hail Mary pass.” She explained that she could not “find any factual allegations supporting [Governor Corbett’s] allegations of concerted action that might nudge its conspiracy claim into plausible territory.” Judge Kane, further, wrote “[t]he fact that Penn State will offer fewer scholarships over a period of four years does not plausibly support its allegation that the reduction of scholarships at Penn State will result in a market-wide anticompetitive effective, such that the ‘nation’s top scholastic football players’ would be unable to obtain a scholarship in the nationwide market for Division I football players.” Although Judge Kane acknowledged that the case raises issues that may be important to the general public and its debate of the sanctions, such debate does not raise antitrust questions or issues. “In another forum the complaint’s appeal to equity and common sense may win the day, but in the antitrust world these arguments fail to advance the ball.” Governor Corbett has not yet announced whether he will appeal the decision.

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