November 13, 2026
Ted Tatos’s Testimony Cited as Court Grants Preliminary Injunction Against NCAA
EconOne Expert Ted Tatos offered a declaration as well as testimony at the preliminary injunction hearing in the matter of Helms et al. v. NCAA. Mr. Tatos addressed the issues of market power, including direct and indirect evidence. The District Court cited Mr. Tatos’ testimony in issuing an order for the Plaintiffs, enjoining the NCAA from excluding four athletes at Boise State University from participating in the sports of track and field and cross country.
The Court explained that:
The Court has closely reviewed the Tatos Declaration and Backus Declaration and considered the testimony both sides presented at the hearing. For the following reasons, the Court finds Plaintiffs have provided evidence sufficient to define the relevant market and show anticompetitive effect. Because the NCAA elected to not provide a procompetitive rationale for the Five-in-Five Rule, Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their Sherman Act claim.
Dr. Backus states the HMT is the “gold standard approach for defining relevant markets,” and that Mr. Tatos is “assuming his conclusion” that no substitutions exist for cross country and track and field Division I athletes. Dkt. 28-1, at 42–43. The Court is unpersuaded. First, the Ninth Circuit does not require any particular economic test to perform a fact-specific assessment of the relevant market. Second, Mr. Tatos did not simply assume no market outside Division I cross country or track and field existed but provided evidence—bolstered by his own testimony and that of Coach McCurry and Plaintiffs—to that effect. And third, Dr. Backus does not actually state the HMT should have been conducted or that it would be feasible here—only that Mr. Tatos’s conclusion that conducting an HMT is infeasible over concerns about the Cellophane Fallacy is incorrect.
Considering all the written and oral evidence, the Court finds the Tatos Declaration and testimony given at the hearing provide concrete evidence sufficient to define the relevant markets as NCAA Division I cross country and track and field teams.