Our friend Matt Mitten, who’s a law professor at Marquette University Law School and director of the National Sports Law Institute, passes along this call for papers for the NCAA annual convention:
CNBC’s Darren Rovell has a terrific piece looking at what Tiger’s loss of endorsement deals has cost his agency, IMG. Unlike commissions on contracts between athletes and teams, which normally carry a 2 to 4% commission, commissions on endorsement deals normally run in the range of 15 to 20 %. Here’s an excerpt of Darren’s piece:
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Watching the Celtics-Lakers game last night, the topic of instant replay came up. Some background: NBA referees can use instant replay in certain situations, as detailed here:
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Couple days late on this, but here goes. Last Friday, a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court ruling that blood and urine samples seized from BALCO and purportedly belonging to Bonds were not admissible. I was interviewed by KCBS Radio in San Francisco on the ruling. The majority agreed that, absent evidence from Bonds trainer/friend/sycophant Greg Anderson (who refuses to testify) the government lacks admissible evidence linking the samples to Bonds; Anderson’s statements to a BALCO employee were inadmissible hearsay. The court rejected arguments that Anderson was speaking as Bonds’ agent on the matter of the samples or that Anderson had been given authority to speak about the source of the samples–either of which would have made the statements functionally Bonds’ statements and therefore not hearsay. Alternatively, the court rejected the government’s argument that the statements could come in under the residual exception to the rules. There was a sharp disagreement between the majority and dissent about how to understand independent contractor status and agency for purposes of the hearsay rules.
Matt Bodie, one of my colleagues at PrawfsBlawg, has some thoughts about conference realignment, arguing that it marks (or should mark, if we all were honest) the end of the pretense of amateurism in college football, the “crashing down” (finally) of the whole system. Worth a read.
It looks like we’ll be seeing some movement with conferences, including the real possibility that Texas and Texas A&M will join the Pac 10 and SEC, respectively.
Baseballs is the most famous, pokers is one of the most recent ones to gain traction with the viewing public. Now, in September 2010, the World Series of Boxing begins throughout the world. What is the World Series of Boxing? Well, if all goes according to plan, the World Series of Boxing (hereinafter the WSB) will be, according to its official web site, an annually recurring, global competition featuring franchises in three regional conferences: ASIA, EUROPE, AND THE AMERICAS. Each region will initially be comprised of FOUR CITY-BASED FRANCHISES, and each franchise will field a SQUAD OF 10 BOXERS across FIVE WEIGHT CLASSES designated by AIBA. Yes, AIBA, the hand that rocks the cradle of international amateur boxing, along with the international sports marketing agency IMG, is doing its part to bring a team element to professional boxing. But that is not the only twist that the WSB is bringing to professional boxing; the salaried participants in these professional boxing team competitions will not only be select professional boxers who competed in the 2008 Olympics, but also some of the top amateur boxers in the world. However, all of the participating amateurs will retain their eligibility to participate in the Olympics. Thus, if the WSB gains traction, it could eventually result in a sea change in the relationship between amateur and professional boxing. A quick analysis of the current rules concerning Olympic eligibility for professional boxing, and the potential implications of allowing amateur boxers jump between the amateur and professional boxing worlds follows…
Good piece by Albert Breer in the Boston Globe on Boston College’s Professional Sports Counseling Panel, a BC entity which helps its students-athletes with the challenges and opportunities related to turning pro. No other school has a panel like the one offered at BC; they instead use advisers for individual teams. Breer highlights the excellent work of BC Assistant Dean Warren Zola, who serves as Chairman of the Panel.
A question to those clambering for Bud Selig to reverse the call and award Galarraga a perfect game: Is it just about the perfect game, that unique historical rarity? What if it had been an ordinary no-hitter? A one-hitter? What about a shut-out (where the outcome was otherwise unaffected)?
On Wednesday night, with just one out to go in the game, Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was wrongly denied a perfect game on a very bad call by umpire Jim Joyce. Here’s Tom Verducci’s account for SI.com:
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