A federal judge in Las Vegas has...

A federal judge in Las Vegas has rejected a claim by a 28-year-old former steelworker that the NCAA was guilty of age discrimination in ruling him ineligible to play at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

John Matthews, who played eight years of city league basketball in Clairton, Pa., and was an All-State performer last season in junior college in California, asked the court to overturn an NCAA rule that stipulates that any organized competition following an athlete’s 20th birthday counts against Division I eligibility.

U.S. District Judge Lloyd George ruled the NCAA regulation was reasonable and created no hardship for Matthews, who has accepted a basketball scholarship from non-Division I Gannon University in Erie, Pa.