The NBA Draft & Early Entry Decisions

Finally, one year later, the sports world is recognizing the challenges that student-athletes in the sport of men’s basketball face when navigating the rules relative to entering the NBA draft early. The NCAA and NBA have developed rules that, when combined, protect everyone except student-athletes trying to make a good decision.

Lots of articles been written on this subject, and I’d encourage you to read the following:

1. An opinion piece I wrote last April, predicting that this will be a problem for student-athletes.
2. Two advice pieces, written for student-athletes.
a. By Marc Isenberg -- link.
b. By Darren Heitner -- link.
3. An opinion piece by Bob Kravitz of the Indinapolis Star pointing out the current problems.
4. A lengthy law review article I wrote outlining the history of the NBA draft and arguing for change.

38th Annual Sports Lawyers Association Conference

The full program for the the 38th Annual Sports Lawyers Association Conference has been released. The event takes place May 10-12, 2012 in San Diego, CA. Highlights from the conference include the following:

College Conferences and Their Own Networks - Will College Sports Be Changed Forever? Counseling Your Client in a Crisis Situation
Town Hall Debate Collective Bargaining:Winners and Losers
Ethics for Sports Lawyers, The Lawyer's Dilemma: Ethics vs. Reality
Title IX: 40 Years Later
The Olympic Games as a Showcase - Anticipated Issues
And many others

Return of cheering speech

Two items on the cheering speech front:

First, I am quoted in today's New York Times on the subject, staking out my favored position that it's all First-Amendment protected and at least state-run facilities cannot do much. This subject seems to be back in the news of late, helped by some high-profile incidents, such as the eviction of former NC State basketball stars Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani from an NC Stage game last month. The Times interview was pretty interesting, because the reporter seemed dubious and so, apparently, were the other people he had spoken to.

Second, here's an example of when cheering speech can be pretty clever: Fans of a lower-division German soccer team that had not scored in several game brought a sign reading "We'll show you where the goal is," then another group stood behind the visitors' goal holding yellow and green arrows and pointing them at the net (click to enlarge). Deadspin has video of the fans in motion. Now should the team, upset by the fans' "negativity," be able to stop this quite clever (and non-disruptive, since there aren't many people at the game) expression of dissatisfaction with the team's performance? And if the answer is no, then we need some way to draw a line between this and booing and yelling that the players stink--and no one has ever successfully drawn that line.

Sports Law at the Final Four: Tulane Law on Friday

If you are in town for the Final Four or have the good fortune to live in NOLA, please come by Tulane Law School for a panel discussion apropos to March Madness. The Tulane Sports Law Society presents: "Hot Topics in NCAA Athletics: Time for a Change?"

The panel discussion will take place this Friday, March 30th, beginning at 1pm, running until about 2:15pm. Immediately following the panel discussion will be an informal reception until 3pm. Potential topics include: multi-year scholarships, scholarship enhancements, conference realignment, player safety, social media, transfer issues, and the BCS. The panelists follow:

Renee Gomila, Associate Director of Enforcement, NCAA
Timothy Liam Epstein, Partner/Chair Sports Law Practice Group, SmithAmundsen, LLC

Greg Byrne, Director of Athletics, University of Arizona

Mike Alden, Director of Athletics, University of Missouri

John Long, Director of Compliance, Southeastern Louisiana University

The panel will take place at Tulane Law School. Room 257 Weinmann Hall, 6329 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA 70118. The panel is open to the public.

Sports Law Blog gets attention

Marc's post on the Gregg Williams suspension got some pub from reporter Stefan Fatsis on this week's Hang Up and Listen podcast on Slate. Fatsis seems to be a regular reader of the blog; he interviewed me for an NPR speech on fan speech a few years ago.

New Sports Illustrated column: What Hurdles Remain for Dodgers Sale?

I have a new column for SI on a group that includes Magic Johnson wining the bidding process for the Dodgers and what issues remain.  They include factors that will be considered by a bankruptcy judge on April 13 and how debt financing plays a role in Major League Baseball's evaluation of the winning bid. 

Hope you have a chance to check out the column.

Odds

Tassos Kaburakis and I recently had the chance to collaborate on a research project looking at gambling in the EU. Our findings were just published in the new issue of Business Law International. The abstract is below. Our follow-up piece focuses on the US exclusively and is slated for publication later this year. Among other things, our US-specific article looks at PASPA on the statute's 20th anniversary.

Using law and policy as a sustainable competitive advantage source is a recent research stream. This paper illustrates how legal and policy research contributes to firms’ strategy in the regulated gambling industry, defined by legislation and jurisprudence. The gambling sector has been a microcosm of European integration and harmonisation challenges, as well as promising opportunities. Research on European Court of Justice case law in the period 1990-2010 and on recent policy developments yields significant findings for firms wishing to compete in the gambling industry, in which entry barriers have traditionally been high due to restrictive regulation. Following the latest European Court of Justice decisions in September 2010 and the ensuing policy impact across Europe, gambling operators are prudent to invest in litigation, lobbying, continuous legal and policy monitoring, and establishment of regional gambling sites in jurisdictions they would have been preempted from pursuing heretofore.