National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Jerry Tarkanian (488 U.S. 179)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 12, 1988 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 488 U.S. 179 · 109 S. Ct. 454
- Decided
- December 12, 1988
- Term
- October Term 1988
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. When he became head basketball coach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), in 1973, Jerry Tarkanian inherited a team with a mediocre 14-14 record. App. 188, 205. Four years later the team won 29 out of 32 games and placed third in the championship tournament sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to which UNLV belongs. Id., at 188. Yet in September 1977 UNLV informed Tarkanian that it was going to suspend him. No dissatisfaction with Tarkanian, once described as “the ‘winningest’ active basketball soach,” id., at 19, motivated his suspension. Rather, the impetus was a report by the NCAA detailing 38 violations of NCAA rules by UNLV personnel, including 10 involving Tarkanian. The NCAA had placed the university’s basketball team on probation for two years and ordered UNLV to show cause why the NCAA should not impose further penalties unless UNLV severed all ties during the probation between its intercollegiate athletic program and Tarkanian. Facing demotion and a drastic cut in pay, Tarkanian brought suit in Nevada state court, alleging that he had been deprived of his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights in violation of 42 U. S. C. § 1983. Ultimately Tarkanian obtained injunctive relief and an award of attorney’s fees against both UNLV and the NCAA. 103 Nev. 331, 741 P. 2d 1345 (1987)…
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