A Mississippi school district is suing sports equipment and customized athletic apparel companies Riddell and Varsity Brands over an alleged 13-year bid-rigging and price-fixing scheme.

Hancock County School District filed a class action lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, representing schools in Mississippi and Louisiana, alleging that Riddell and Varsity Brands sold goods at artificially inflated prices from at least July 2010 to October 2023.

According to the complaint, Riddell and Varsity Brands subsidiary BSN Sports, “unlawfully agreed to coordinate their bids, suppress competition and allocate contracts among themselves, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.” The goods sold, according to the complaint, included helmets, cleats, shoes, uniforms, pants, shirts, polos, practice gear, mouthpieces, hats and caps, sweatshirts and crewnecks, quarter-zips, balls, sports bags and customized apparel.

“Defendants and unnamed co-conspirators agreed, combined and conspired to inflate, fix, raise, maintain or artificially stabilize prices of sports equipment and related services,” the complaint says. “Defendants’ conspiracy successfully targeted public school districts in the state of Mississippi.”

According to the lawsuit, Mississippi public school districts are required to obtain bids from at least two companies for purchases between $5,000 and $75,000, with the lowest bid typically winning the contract. The complaint alleges that the defendants circumvented this competitive bidding process by sharing pricing information with other individuals and companies and coordinating bids designed to ensure that a predetermined winner secured each contract. The suit alleges that this allowed the defendants to gain “millions of dollars through their anticompetitive conduct.”

Riddell and Varsity Brands didn’t respond to Counselor’s requests for comment before publication.

Hibbett Inc. and former subsidiary Hibbett Team Sales were named in the suit, as was uniform and athleticwear company Rex Team Sports operating under the name Sports Center.

This is the latest in a string of similar cases, according to Sportico. In May 2024, a former sales representative for Riddell pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in a similar case, which prosecutors said affected more than $2 million in sports equipment sold to Mississippi public schools between 2020 and 2023. In 2025, a BSN Sports employee pleaded guilty to participating in a similar scheme affecting more than $850,000 in sales to over 30 schools. The employee, Doug Heflin, conspired with other alleged co-conspirators to “predetermine who would win certain business, at times submitting intentionally inflated bids to schools,” per Sportico.

Varsity Brands has been involved in litigation recently, specifically its cheerleading division, Varsity Spirit, settling two antitrust cases worth tens of millions of dollars.

In addition to the civil action against Riddell and Varsity Brands, federal law enforcement has been conducting probes into athletic equipment sales, particularly in the South. Sportico reported that a federal grand jury in Mississippi indicted three employees at companies in Mississippi and Georgia for their alleged involvement in similar schemes.