UTEP athlete joins lawsuit against the NCAA

A former UTEP football player is joining a class action lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association — or the NCAA.

Former tight end Kevin Perry joined several other players in a lawsuit asking for the NCAA’s limits on compensation to be thrown out.

That compensation is in the form of an athletic scholarship, which mainly covers tuition, fees, and room and board.

The lawsuit points to the college conferences that “earn billions of dollars each year through the hard work, sweat, and sometimes broken bodies of top-tier college football and men’s basketball athletes …”

It also states: “The NCAA maintains that its foundational concept is amateurism, which it claims dictates … that athletes not receive pay … Yet, coaches, athletic directors, conference presidents, and NCAA executives are paid millions … There is nothing ‘amateur’ about the billions of dollars generated by FBS football and D-I men’s basketball.”

ABC-7 talked with Richard Adauto, UTEP’s Executive Vice President, and Athletic Director Bob Stull about the lawsuit — mainly to ask how a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs would affect the university.

Both declined to comment. Stull added it was too premature to form an opinion.

The class action lawsuit was filed in a U.S. District Court in New Jersey. Legal experts say it could take months for a decision.