By: Patrick Neiswender

There have always been two major developmental paths for a youth ice hockey player: the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).[1] When a player turned sixteen, they had to choose either the CHL or the NCAA.[2] Prior to the NCAA allowing student compensation through name, image, and likeness (NIL), if a young hockey player chose to play in the CHL, they were barred from playing in the NCAA.[3] In 2024, one hockey player, Rylan Masterson, brought a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA and a number of its member schools, alleging that the prohibition of CHL hockey players violates antitrust law.[4] Masterson alleges the NCAA engaged in an illegal, horizontal group boycott agreement amongst its member institutions, restricting competition by prohibiting hockey players who played in the CHL from playing in the NCAA.[5] The complaint further alleges that this horizontal agreement unlawfully restricts the labor market of youth hockey players of eligible age from being able to compete in both the CHL and the NCAA as a per se offense to Section 1 of the Sherman Act.[6]

There are two important frameworks courts use to evaluate Section 1 Sherman Act antitrust claims: the per se test and the more extensive rule of reason test.[7] It is unlikely a court would agree with Masterson and evaluate this restraint as a per se group boycott, as this restriction would not always restrict competition.[8] Instead, the court would likely adopt the rule of reason approach established in Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n v. Alston.[9] First, Masterson has likely met his initial burden, showing that restricting all CHL players from playing in the NCAA has an anticompetitive effect.[10] Second, the NCAA must then meet its burden, showing a pro-competitive effect, likely arguing that its prohibition against professional athletes creates a unique product in the market.[11] Whether the court agrees that Masterson met his initial burden, whether the NCAA has met its burden, or whether Masterson can meet his final burden is a question the court must decide.

Only a few months after the class-action lawsuit was filed, the NCAA and the CHL reached an agreement, allowing players who have played in the CHL to retain NCAA eligibility.[12] This agreement provides a remedy that would have prevented Masterson’s class-action from ever arising: the ability for youth hockey players to play in the CHL and NCAA.[13] This agreement benefits the players, as they are no longer siloed into the NCAA or the CHL and can play in either league.[14] In its first year of enactment, the NCAA has already managed to recruit several top CHL talent, including top NHL prospect Gavin McKenna.[15] While the NCAA has seen an increase in top talent, the CHL has also seen an influx of top American talent, choosing to play in Canada instead of American Junior options.[16] However, this agreement does effectively reduce the framework of junior hockey to two leagues.[17] Top prospects, destined for the NHL, will likely follow a similar path to Gavin McKenna and play in the CHL from the age of sixteen to eighteen, then transition to the NCAA. But the existing junior leagues like the USHL, NAHL, and others have effectively been cut out altogether.[18] Whether this agreement between the CHL and NCAA violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act is yet to be challenged.

This agreement has led to other NCAA sports allowing former professional athletes to retain their eligibility. In early November 2025, two former NBA G-League players, Thierry Darlan and London Johnson, were granted eligibility by the NCAA.[19] Like the hockey players, neither Darlan nor London had entered the NBA draft.[20] Further, they remain within the five-year NCAA eligibility time frame.[21] However, the question remains—where does it end? Players who have played more than ten NBA games are now being recruited for NCAA basketball.[22] Most assumed that the NCAA’s NIL rules would bar former professional athletes, yet that is precisely what is happening. What began as a single class-action lawsuit producing an agreement allowing teenage hockey players to play college hockey has now opened the door for professional athletes in other sports to retain, or even regain, NCAA eligibility, fundamentally shifting the boundary between amateur and professional competition.

 

[1] Puck Chaser, Hockey Scouts Discuss CHL vs. NCAA Routes, Elite Level Hockey, https://www.elitelevelhockey.com/chl-vs-ncaa-hockey-routes/ [https://perma.cc/9BJ3-KEUB] (last visited Nov. 15, 2025) (noting that the NCAA is often a faster, more physical style of hockey since its players are older and more mature compared to the CHL, which is restricted to sixteen to twenty-year-old players).

[2] See id. (explaining that traditionally, a greater number of the top prospects in Canada and the United States choose the CHL, but that there is an increasing number of athletes choosing the NCAA path); see also About the CHL, Canadian Hockey League, https://chl.ca/aboutthechl/ [https://perma.cc/8H49-RMPH] (last visited Nov. 15, 2025) (noting that there are three leagues comprising the CHL: Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Quebec Maritime Hockey League (QMJHL), and the Western Hockey League (WHL), with more than 415 CHL Alumni currently in the NHL, which is the most of any developmental league in the world).

[3] See Chaser, supra note 1; see also Greg Wyshynski, Why Gavin McKenna’s Penn State Commitment is Game Changer, ESPN (July 17, 2025, at 07:00 ET), https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/45755235/nhl-draft-gavin-mckenna-top-prospect-penn-state-college-hockey-nil-chl [https://perma.cc/22UT-RKYT] (detailing how CHL players signed professional contracts and received a stipend capped at $250).

[4] See Complaint for Plaintiff at 1, Masterson v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, No. 1:24-CV-00754 (W.D.N.Y. Aug. 8, 2024). See generally Kristen Shilton, NCAA Sued Over Major-Junior Hockey Player Ban, ESPN (Aug. 13, 2024, at 10:31 ET) https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/40846088/ncaa-sued-major-junior-hockey-player-ban [https://perma.cc/694R-WLGV] (describing how Masterson played three years in the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) maintaining his NCAA eligibility, but once Masterson played in two preseason games in 2022 for the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL, he no longer had NCAA eligibility).

[5] See Complaint for Plaintiff, supra note 4, at 2–3, ¶¶ 7–8.

[6]  See id. at 13–14, ¶¶ 66, 72.

[7]  See Broad. Music, Inc. v. Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc., 441 U.S. 1, 19–20 (1979) (stating that the per se rule should be invoked where “the practice facially appears to be one that would always or almost always tend to restrict competition and decrease output”); Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n v. Alston, 594 U.S. 69, 96–97 (2021) (describing the rule of reason as a “three-step, burden-shifting framework” where the plaintiff holds the initial burden to show an anticompetitive effect, the burden then shifts to the defendant to show a pro-competitive justification, which shifts the burden back to the plaintiff to show that those pro-competitive justifications could be achieved through lesser anticompetitive means)..

[8]  See Complaint for Plaintiff, supra note 4.

[9] See 594 U.S. at 96–97.

[10] See Complaint for Plaintiff, supra note 4.

[11] See Shilton, supra note 4 (noting how the NCAA bylaws state that “an individual shall not be eligible for intercollegiate athletics in a sport if the individual has ever competed on a professional team”).

[12] See CHL Players to be Eligible to Play NCAA Hockey Beginning in 2025-2026, Nat’l Hockey League (Nov. 7, 2024), https://www.nhl.com/news/chl-players-to-be-eligible-to-play-ncaa-hockey-beginning-in-2025-26 [https://perma.cc/G3J4-FEDR] (noting that CHL players will be eligible to play in the NCAA starting August 1, 2025).

[13] See id.

[14] See Wyshynski, supra note 3 (noting that this agreement allows players to question which path benefits their development the most at ages fifteen through seventeen while acknowledging that, although the CHL will likely lose players as they turn eighteen or nineteen, it will also gain more players at sixteen and seventeen years old).

[15] See Wyshynski, supra note 3 (highlighting that McKenna will make approximately $700,000 in NIL endorsements while playing against bigger, stronger, and faster opponents in the NCAA).

[16] See Jacob Titus, One Year After NCAA-CHL Agreement, How Can the USHL Thrive?, Hockey News (Nov. 7, 2025), https://thehockeynews.com/news/latest-news/one-year-after-ncaa-chl-agreement-how-can-the-ushl-thrive [https://perma.cc/287T-Z9BL] (emphasizing that the United States Hockey League (USHL) has seen a number of its players leave for the CHL, leaving its existence in question).

[17] See GC Tyler, Understanding Junior Hockey: The Path to the NHL, Goalie Coaches, https://goaliecoaches.com/understanding-junior-hockey-path-nhl/ [https://perma.cc/L268-9P7C] (last visited Nov. 15, 2025) (emphasizing that before any NCAA agreement, a player could play in the Tier 1-USHL, the Tier 2-North American Hockey League, and several other independent Canadian leagues).

[18] See Titus, supra note 16.

[19] See Kevin Sweeney, Why Former Pros are Coming to College Basketball, and What Eligibility Issues They Face, Sports Illustrated (Nov. 7, 2025), https://www.si.com/college-basketball/why-former-pros-are-coming-to-college-basketball-and-what-eligibility-issues-they-face [https://perma.cc/C7HN-SPYG] (noting that Thierry Darlan had played one season in the NBA G-League Ignite program and London Johnson had played three seasons—two in the Ignite program and one not).

[20] See id.

[21] See id.

[22] See id.