Top NC court to hear ‘Cardiac Pack’ case against NCAA on April 14

Eight days after the NCAA crowns a new men’s basketball national champion, one of North Carolina’s most celebrated championship teams will get its day in the state’s highest court.

The North Carolina Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments on April 14 in the case Cardiac Pack v. NCAA. The suit pits most members of North Carolina State University’s 1983 national championship squad against college sports’ primary governing agency. The former players allege that the NCAA has profited illegally for decades from ’83 team members’ names, images, and likenesses.

The hearing falls eight days after the April 6 men’s basketball national championship game in Indianapolis.

The Cardiac Pack appealed to the state Supreme Court after Business Court Judge Mark Davis dismissed the players’ lawsuit last August. Davis holds undergraduate and law degrees from NC State’s chief rival, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“In this lawsuit, twelve former members of North Carolina State University’s (‘N.C. State’) 1983 NCAA men’s basketball championship team have sued the NCAA for using — without permission — their names, images, and likenesses contained in copyrighted game footage from that season. Because their claims are untimely, barred by their failure to allege a violation of a legally enforceable right, and preempted by the federal Copyright Act, dismissal of this action in its entirety is appropriate,” Davis wrote in a 44-page opinion.

Davis focused first on the statute of limitations. “Plaintiffs’ statutory claims for unreasonable restraint of trade, monopoly maintenance, monopoly leveraging, and UDTP [unfair and deceptive trade practices] are subject to a four-year statute of limitations,” he wrote. “Plaintiffs’ common law claims for misappropriation of name, image, likeness, and publicity rights; invasion of privacy; and unjust enrichment are governed by a three-year limitations period.”

“Plaintiffs’ own allegations … make clear that the original allegedly unlawful act giving rise to their injuries was the NCAA’s act of forcing them to sign the SAS [student-athlete statement] prior to the beginning of the 1983 NCAA basketball season,” Davis explained.

“Accordingly, because Plaintiffs’ injuries as alleged in this lawsuit derive from an act taken during (or shortly before) the 1983 season, the statute of limitations applicable to each of their claims expired decades ago,” he wrote.

The players had argued under the “continuing wrong” doctrine that the NCAA committed a violation each time it misused video footage of the 1983 championship contest. But “that doctrine does not apply here,” Davis wrote.

The judge applied a similar analysis to those used in two federal cases against the NCAA: the Chalmers case in New York involving 16 former college basketball players from multiple schools and the Pryor case in Ohio involving former Ohio State University athletes.

“Plaintiffs signed the SAS forms over 40 years ago,” Davis wrote. “They could have brought a legal challenge to the forced relinquishment of their NIL rights decades ago, and they have offered no valid legal basis for this Court to excuse their inaction.”

In addition to the statute of limitations, Davis found that the Cardiac Pack did not demonstrate a “legally enforceable right.” He distinguished their case from two North Carolina precedent cases called Flake and Renwick.

“Neither Plaintiffs’ brief nor the Court’s own independent research has disclosed any subsequent caselaw suggesting that our Supreme Court would extend the rights discussed in Flake or Renwick to encompass a collegiate athlete’s right to recovery of monetary damages from the use of game footage from the broadcast of a sporting event in which he or she voluntarily participated,” Davis wrote.

The Cardiac Pack’s claims are also pre-empted by the federal Copyright Act of 1976, Davis explained.

“Here, Plaintiffs do not seriously dispute the fact that the NCAA owns a copyright to a tangible collection of game footage from the 1983 March Madness tournament, which includes the original broadcasts of the tournament’s games along with rebroadcasts, highlights, or ‘clips’ of game footage from the original broadcasts,” Davis wrote. “Moreover, Plaintiffs do not contend that the NCAA has ever granted them a license — or assigned them the rights — to use this footage.”

“[T]he Copyright Act will preempt a plaintiff’s state-law claims unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that the defendant manipulated or imitated the plaintiff’s identity or likeness or otherwise used the plaintiff’s identity or likeness to support a product independent from the copyrighted work,” the court order explained.

“Here, although Plaintiffs allege that the NCAA’s website and YouTube channels contain commercial advertisements, there are no allegations that game footage from the 1983 March Madness tournament is being used in any manner to suggest that Plaintiffs are promoting products that might be featured in those advertisements,” Davis wrote.

“Accordingly, no viewer watching a rebroadcast of game footage from the 1983 March Madness tournament on the NCAA’s website or its YouTube channels could reasonably believe that the players shown in that game footage are personally endorsing any particular brand of food, beverage, item of clothing, video game, or any other product being advertised in connection with a showing of the footage,” he added.

Davis held a May 2025 hearing on the NCAA’s motion to dismiss the Cardiac Pack case. In March, he had issued an order rejecting the association’s request to stay the proceedings.

The players initially filed suit in June 2024. In an amended complaint two months later, the list of plaintiffs grew by two: Ernie Myers and Martha Lou Mobley, sister and administrator of the estate of former NCSU player Quinton Leonard III. They joined original plaintiffs Thurl Bailey, Alvin Battle, Walt Densmore, Tommy DiNardo, Terry Gannon, George McClain, Cozell McQueen, Walter Procter, Harold Thompson, and Mike Warren.

That group of 12 plaintiffs did not include former players Sidney Lowe, Derek Whittenburg, and Lorenzo Charles. Charles, who made the winning basket in the Wolfpack’s championship game upset of Houston, died in 2011.

“Top NC court to hear ‘Cardiac Pack’ case against NCAA on April 14” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.