Heitner LegalRecently, news broke that former escort, Katina Powell, wrote a book, Breaking the Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen. In it she alleges that between 2010 and 2014, a graduate assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at the University of Louisville, Andre McGee, paid her to provide strippers and sex for recruits of […]
The growth in the daily fantasy sports space is astonishing. The number of people playing continues to grow exponentially with more than 8 million people projected to try daily fantasy sports in 2015. During the first week of the NFL season, industry leader DraftKings, had 200,000 new user sign-ups in one day. The industry is […]
The story of a student-athlete getting into legal trouble and then transferring to a different program is not a new one. What is new is the way that conferences are beginning to handle those troubled student-athletes. In the wake of the Jonathan Taylor, University of Georgia and University of Alabama debacle, conferences across the country […]
Roughly two months after United States District Judge Claudia Wilken approved a $60 million settlement that would compensate past collegiate players for the NCAA’s use of their name, image, and likeness in video games manufactured by Electronic Arts (EA Sports) from the years 2003 to 2014 – a decision currently being appealed by the NCAA […]
Every collegiate athletic director faces a similar challenge each day—the challenge of maintaining a competitive athletic program while adhering to NCAA bylaws. However, since it is impossible to monitor each coach, student-athlete, and administrator at every point in time, NCAA bylaw infractions occur at most schools. As such, the top athletic directors implement measures to […]
Last week I wrote an article describing Marshall v. ESPN (see the Complaint here), the latest federal class-action lawsuit in which college athletes are seeking damages against the broadcasting firms, college athletic conferences, and licensing firms they allege violated their rights of publicity. Now I will analyze the fourth cause of action of the lawsuit, […]
An NCAA emerging sport is defined as: “A women’s sport recognized by the NCAA that is intended to help schools provide more athletics opportunities for women, more sport sponsorship options for institutions and help that sport achieve NCAA championship status.” Unfortunately, beginning in 2017, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics (“CWA”) has recommended the NCAA […]
Ten former college football and basketball players, mostly residents of Tennessee, filed a class action lawsuit on October 3, 2014 in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division. The plaintiff athletes, having played football and/or basketball for Vanderbilt University and The University of Tennessee, among other schools, seek to […]
In August of this year, the NCAA Board of Directors approved more autonomy for the Big 5 Conferences in a 16-2 vote. The Big 5, consisting of the SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12, and PAC 12, now has the power to change the landscape of collegiate athletics. These conferences have the ability to vote on and enact new rules […]
The following article was written by Benjamin Haynes, Esq. Starting October 30, 2012, the NCAA will implement a new rule with regards to Head Coach’s responsibilities. The specific rule is NCAA Division I Bylaw 11.1.2.1, which will state: “An institution’s head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of all assistant coaches and administrators […]