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Former ASU coach among plaintiffs in suit against NCAA over unpaid coaches

A former track and field coach at Arizona State University is a plaintiff in a would-be class-action lawsuit accusing the wealthy NCAA of price fixing.

Court documents say Shannon Ray’s experience is reflective of more than a thousand other division one coaches forced to agree to work for free just to get hired.

Ray reportedly worked unpaid for ASU from 2019 to 2021 under the title volunteer coach.

The NCAA limits how many paid coaches are allowed per sport.

Ray and others’ antitrust case seeks back-pay and damages for certain Division I coaches who worked with the volunteer tag during a roughly four-year period.

The complaint calls schools a buyer-side cartel with a price fixing deal enforced by the NCAA that is designed to stifle salaries.

The NCAA has voted to erase the volunteer designation from Division 1 sports by July 1.

Victoria Jackson is a sports historian at ASU and a former track and field athlete. She was even a volunteer coach at ASU for some time. The Show about the lawsuit and the role of volunteer coaches in college sports.

Hear Victoria Jackson on The Show with host Lauren Gilger

ncaa-price-fixing-show-lg-20230404.mp3

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Matthew Casey has won Edward R. Murrow awards for hard news and sports reporting since he joined KJZZ as a senior field correspondent in 2015.