Banks Takes NCAA Rules Case to Court

Former Notre Dame running back Braxston Banks began his challenge of NCAA eligibility rules in federal court today.

Banks’ attorney said the NCAA’s lengthy written arguments present no good reason to stop Banks’ return to the Fighting Irish football team.

“I suppose if this were a baseball case, I would say there is a lot of windup and not much pitch,” said attorney Alan B. Morrison.

Banks, recruited as a running back from Hayward, Calif., says he needs another year at Notre Dame to prove he can play pro ball. NCAA rules say Banks sacrificed his final year when he contacted an agent and entered the NFL draft.

William C. Barnard, an attorney representing the NCAA, said Banks failed to show the rules are an unreasonable restraint on the market of college football.

Arguments on the case last 90 minutes. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Miller Jr. said he would rule on the case by Friday morning.

By his own admission, Banks’ common sense deserted him when he filed for the April draft.

On paper, he seemed to have little going for him. His promising college career ended with potential largely unfulfilled.

A knee injury had cut his playing time sharply his sophomore and junior years. He rushed for little more than 100 yards in the 1988 national championship season. Last year, the knee forced him from football altogether.

With a year of eligibility remaining, Banks opted instead for the draft. Confidants whom he won’t identify told him he had a shot, despite everything.

When he showed up to show his stuff to scouts, though, he wore a knee brace. Any doubts raised by the device were worsened by a slow 40-yard dash. “I apparently scared off everyone. . . ,” he admitted in a court document.

Banks was left in the cold. The NFL turned him down flat. And because he had filed for the draft and contacted an agent, he sacrificed his final year of college eligibility, as well.

So, four days before Notre Dame fall practice begins, Banks is turning to the courts for help.

A suit filed last week on Banks’ behalf by a Ralph Nader legal organization claims the NCAA violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by unreasonably restraining trade and commerce. At the hearing, Banks will seek a court order to stop the NCAA from enforcing the rules that keep him out of college ball.