According to reporting by the Grand Rapids Press, the lacrosse manufacturer and retailer suing the NCAA over a rule change for 2010 has been dealt a major setback. As we discussed in the last post on this topic, manufacturers will have to go to the molding process soon to make the 2010 retail shelves. Warrior, a Michigan-based manufacturer of lacrosse equipment and Athlete's Connection, a retailer I've never heard of, also in Michigan, wanted to request an immediate hearing on the matter and ultimately a court injunction. Warrior argued that it had to block the rule and get some relief before October to avoid spending millions of dollars to retool.

U.S. District Judge Janet Neff declined to hear the request. She evidently noted the same thing some of Warrior’s competitors have said to me -- that Warrior had waited six months to file a lawsuit against the collegiate sports association. People in the industry that I spoke to said they thought that was part of the Warrior strategy – waiting to bring the action until other companies made investments in anticipation of the rule change, hoping to win the case and trump the industry in one big swing. No future court dates have been set but I’ll bet it’s not over.

I'll blog more on this when new information becomes available.