Archive for ◊ June, 2010 ◊

Author:
• Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Because we can never get enough of the judge-umpire analogy on our blog, here you go:
more…

Author:
• Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Yesterday, various media outlets reported that Jennifer Capriati was rushed to a hospitial for a possible overdose of prescription drugs.

more…

Author:
• Monday, June 28th, 2010

In the wake of the Lakers defeating the Celtics in the NBA finals, Celtics center/power forward Rasheed Wallace surprisingly retired. Though he played in 79 of the 82 regular season games and all of the Celtics’ playoff games, the 35-year-old Wallace has battled an assortment of injuries in recent years, including foot and ankle problems.

more…

Author:
• Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Following up on my post from last week, the Idaho Statesmen features an interesting article today regarding a potential antitrust lawsuit against the Bowl Championship Series. The article notes that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff intends to continue his pursuit of an antitrust case against the BCS, despite Utah’s recent admission into the Pac-10. The article reports that AG Shurtleff will be meeting with the U.S. Department of Justice in mid-July to discuss the possibility of the DOJ challenging the BCS under federal antitrust law, with a decision from the DOJ expected this fall.

more…

Author:
• Saturday, June 26th, 2010

The first post-American Needle sports-related case was released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today. The case is Deutscher Tennis Bund, et al vs. ATP World Tour, et al, No. 08-4123. As of 6:oo PM PDT, the Third Circuit had yet to make the decision available on its website, but I will update this post as soon as it is available. In the interim, I have a copy that I can email to anyone as an attachment upon request.

more…

Author:
• Thursday, June 24th, 2010

My interest in sports law always has been about sports-as-law; that is, what can sports tell us about law, legal rules, and legal systems. The latest example is the epic early-round match at Wimbledon between American John Isner (who at 6’9″ also has the distinction of being the tallest player around) and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. After ten hours of play, the two are tied 59-59 in the fifth set (which itself has lasted more than seven hours). Play was suspended because of darkness and will resume tomorrow.

more…

Author:
• Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Paul Caron, who always has his eye out of a sports/tax link, reports on efforts by the IRS and California to recover back taxes on the benefits Reggie Bush received from an agent while at USC. The NCAA’s infraction report found that Bush received about $300, 000 and may owe (with interest and penalties) as much as $ 200,000. more…

Author:
• Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

The Times has a story today on the trend in law schools to change their grading systems to inflate student GPAs, often retroactively, and make students more marketable. At FIU, we just changed our system (although not retroactively) by eliminating the mean and reworking the distribution.

more…

Author:
• Monday, June 21st, 2010

Although the conference expansion frenzy has seemingly settled down for the time being (see Howard’s earlier post on the subject here), one of the legal questions that remains is what the implications of the minor reshuffling will be for the Bowl Championship Series. Specifically, following Utah’s recent decision to join the Pac-10, the question arises of whether two of the most strident critics of the BCS, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, will remain as interested in pursing antitrust claims against the BCS.

more…

Author:
• Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Jimmy Golen of the Associated Press considers that question. Here are a few excerpts from Jimmy’s article:

more…