{"id":656403,"date":"2026-10-30T11:53:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=656403"},"modified":"2026-10-30T11:53:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:53:59","slug":"swimmer-chris-jennings-among-the-plaintiffs-in-division-iii-eligibility-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swimmer-chris-jennings-among-the-plaintiffs-in-division-iii-eligibility-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimmer Chris Jennings Among the Plaintiffs in Division III Eligibility Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swimmer Chris Jennings Among the Plaintiffs in Division III Eligibility Suit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former NCAA swimmer Chris Jennings<\/strong> is among three plaintiffs in an antitrust suit against the NCAA prohibition on Division III scholarships.<\/p>\n

The suits was filed last week<\/a> in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California. It is seeking class-action status in seeking to both secure an injunction to stop the practice and recover damages for athletes.<\/p>\n

Jennings is one of three plaintiffs. He\u2019s a former swimmer and lacrosse player at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia from 2019-23. Also putting their names to the suit are Jackson Hale,<\/strong> a current senior defensive back at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington, and Connor Printz,<\/strong> who played basketball and Claremont McKenna College in California from 2020-24.<\/p>\n

A hallmark of Division III athletics<\/a> is its Bylaw 15.01.3, which says that member institutions, \u201cshall not award financial aid to any student on the basis of athletics leadership, ability, participation or performance.\u201d Students who attend those universities to play sports do not do so on athletic scholarships, though they may receive financial aid<\/a> via other methods or criteria, including merit-based aid.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit argues that this amounts to \u201can ongoing conspiracy to fix the price of Division III athletic labor at zero\u201d for more than 400 schools and an estimated population of up to 200,000 athletes annually. Damages, which the case dates to Oct. 21, 2022, could run into the billions.<\/p>\n

Division III is at the base of the NCAA pyramid and its largest share of institutions. The lack of scholarships is a selling point for many<\/a>.\u00a0 It allows them to field more programs on a level playing field with other institutions and with the intensity turned down<\/a> from the Division I and II levels, where scholarship places are scarce and hotly contested.<\/p>\n