Former player sues NCAA over scholarships versus cost

• The lawsuit joins a host of pending actions against NCAA over rights%2C safety of student-athletes
• Latest suit says NCAA limits on value of scholarships don%27t cover cost of actual attendance
• Action could have greater consequences for Pac-12 conference due to California laws

A former West Virginia football player on Wednesday filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NCAA and the nation's five elite college sports conferences that could redefine what Bowl Subdivision football players can receive under an athletic scholarship.

The suit, which seeks to be a class action, also seeks unspecified damages based on the difference between the value of an athletic scholarship as currently defined by the NCAA – tuition, mandatory fees, room, board and books – and the actual cost of attending college, a figure that includes out-of-pocket costs such as transportation to and from school.

During the 2009-10 school year, that difference ranged from about $1,200 annually to more than $8,000 at schools in the conferences covered by the lawsuit, a 2011 USA TODAY Sports survey found.

Because the damages would be applicable to every football player in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-12 and Southeastern conferences who has received an athletic scholarship every year since March 2010 – damages that would be tripled under anti-trust law -- the suit's financial stakes could be enormous.

The stakes could be greater for the Pac-12 than for the other four conferences because the suit alleges that the NCAA's current rules violate "the policy and spirit of the California's Student Athlete Bill of Rights, as well as the policy and spirit of federal and California antitrust law."

The suits seeks, only from the Pac-12 and the NCAA, unspecified profits from their alleged conduct.

NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn could be immediately reached for comment.

Pac-12 spokesman Erik Hardenbergh said conference officials were still reviewing the suit and did not have any comment at this time.

The case was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, the same venue for ongoing suits against the NCAA related to the use of college athletes' names and likenesses. The lead plaintiffs in those proceedings are former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon and former Arizona State and Nebraska football player Sam Keller.

The new case was filed on behalf of Shawne Alston, a running back who also is the named plaintiff in a suit against video game manufacturer Electronic Arts. Attorneys who represented him in that case are part of his legal team in this case, as well.

Among that group of lawyers is the firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, which is involved in an array of cases against the NCAA, including the Keller case, a case related to concussions suffered by college athletes and a case involving the association's restrictions on the length and number of scholarships schools can offer.