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The 3rd Annual Tulane Law School National Baseball Arbitration Competition took place this past weekend at Tulane Law School. The event was a huge success, with 38 teams from schools across the country participating in a simulated baseball salary arbitration competition. Special thanks to Professor Roger Abrams and Jon Fetterolf for serving as the judges for the final rounds of the competition on Sunday and for putting on an entertaining and educational presentation for all of the competitors on Saturday afternoon. Thanks also to Armando Velasco, Jeffrey Sundram, Blake Simon, Chris Weema, Melissa Desormeaux, Danielle Moore and the Tulane Sports Law Society for hosting a great event.

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I have a new SI.com column on the impact of Javaris Crittenton’s plea deal on Gilbert Arenas. Here’s an excerpt:

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David Grant of the Christian Science Monitor recently wondered why NCAA student-athletes can receive gifts worth up to $500 if they are able to play in Bowl Games, but during the season those same players are much more restricted in what they can receive because of their student-athlete status.

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The Wall Street Journal Law Blog asks, “Would an All-White Professional Basketball League be Legal?” Apparently, someone wants to start a professional basketball league limited to “players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race . . . .”

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The Entertainment and Sports Law Society at the University of Miami School of Law is hosting its 13th Annual Symposium on Friday, February 5. The registration form, containing a list of the speakers, may be accessed here. It looks to be an outstanding event! more…

The Federal Communications Commission took a major step to curb the power of cable operators to block sports programming access to rival telephone and satellite operators, a practice that has long irritated sports viewers. This policy, known as the “terrestrial loophole” was permitted until this order. The FCC took the action, according to the Wall Street Journal, after firms like Verizon, Direct TV and Dish Network, complained that the cable operators improperly blocked their broadcasts of local teams they either own outright or have rights to broadcast) which the Commission, in its 4-1 decision, concluded violated anti-discrimination provisions of section 628 of the Communications Act. Section 628 requires cable operators to act in the public interest and engage in “unfair acts” against satellite operators, including discrimination in the prices, terms and sale of cable programming to those operators.
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Today was the exchange number day for salary arbitration-eligible players and their teams. As expected, Tim Lincecum asked for a record amount ($13,000,000). The Giants countered with $8,000,000 leaving a midpoint of $10,500,000. As is always the case in the final hours and minutes before the exchange deadline, a significant number of deals were completed. Last Friday, 128 players filed for arbitration. That is the largest number in more than one decade. When the dust settled today, a total of 46 exchanged numbers. I was a bit surprised that so many deals got completed because through Monday evening I had seen modest activity. I will be providing some more information after I have tracked down all the pre-exchange deals. more…

ESPN’s Henry Abbott has a great interview with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who is a critic of the NBA’s eligibility restriction, which requires that a player be 19 years old plus one year removed from high school in order to be eligible for the NBA Draft (the rule was negotiated in 2005; previously, players could join the NBA right after finishing high school). The NBA and the Players’ Association will be negotiating a new CBA in the near future and the age limit will likely be a source of tension between the two bargaining units.

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Several of us will be speaking at the University of Florida Levin College of Law on January 29 at the 2010 UF Sports Law Symposium. The general topic is what to expect in the collective bargaining of new agreements in the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball. It should be a great event (and for attorneys near Gainesville, there will be CLE credit). Here’s a press release:

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