• Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
USA Today reported on Wednesday that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff intends to file a federal antitrust suit against the Bowl Championship Series within “the next couple of months.” Shurtleff reportedly told the paper that the attorneys general of at least two other, unnamed states would join him in the suit. The story also reports that Shurtleff stated the U.S. Department of Justice has indicated it would consider following on with its own formal investigation should the state AGs take the lead by filing a suit.
Shurtleff is seeking to enlist the help of an antitrust law firm to assist with the case.
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• Thursday, April 21st, 2011
[The following post is authored by Associated Press sports writer Jimmy Golen, who is a graduate of Yale Law School and an adjunct professor at Boston College - we look forward to more of Jimmy's excellent commentary on our blog -- MM]:
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• Thursday, April 21st, 2011
All are invited to attend this event hosted by the Vermont Law School Sports Law Institute:
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• Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
New article from the Huffington Post by Boston College’s Warren K. Zola on the challenges student-athletes have in transitioning from the NCAA to the NBA under current rules.
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• Sunday, April 17th, 2011
I talk to Paul Elias of the Associated Press about this topic. Bonds plans to appeal and argue that the jury instructions for Count Five constituted a legal error by Judge Illston. While the standard of review would be de novo, I don’t think the appeal would work. Elias interviews several other persons, including Stanford Law Professor Bill Gould. Here are our comments excerpted:
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• Saturday, April 16th, 2011
Clay Travis and I speak with J. Craig Williams about the NFL lockout for the Lawyer 2 Lawyer Show on the Legal Talk Network. Here is our discussion: Legal Play in the NFL Lockout (to directly access the audio file of our discussion, click here). more…
• Friday, April 15th, 2011
This looks like an excellent event:
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 6 p.m.
Seton Hall Law School One Newark Center, Room 373, Newark, NJ
Who You Calling an Amateur? Legal Perspectives on the NCAAs Amateurism Rules
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• Thursday, April 14th, 2011
I have a new SI colum on the Barry Bonds verdict. Bonds was convicted on obstruction of justice, but Judge Illston declared a mistrial on the three perjury counts. Here’s an excerpt of my column:
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• Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a group of 21 law and economics professors and practitioners have submitted a letter to the United States Department of Justice, urging the DoJ to launch a formal antitrust investigation of the Bowl Championship Series. The letter (which is
available here) argues that the BCS violates antitrust law both by unfairly restricting schools in the so-called non-automatically qualifying conferences from competing in the BCS National Championship Game and other BCS sponsored bowl games, as well as by disproportionately distributing its revenue in favor of the six automatically qualifying conferences. Signatories to the letter include economists Andrew Zimbalist (Smith College) and Richard Thaler (Univ. of Chicago), as well as law professors Roger Abrams (Northeastern Univ.) and Raymond Yasser (Univ. of Tulsa).
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• Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
In 2005, the Illinois High School Association (the IHSA), which governs both public and private high school sports in Illinois, implemented an enrollment multiplier that requires actual enrollments of non-boundaried schools be multiplied by 1.65 in determination of classification for athletics competition. This multiplier pits smaller private schools against much larger public schools, the effectiveness of which has been hotly debated, in Illinois and other states throughout the country that have implemented mechanisms like a multiplier in an effort bring the number of state championships won by private schools more in line with their smaller numbers relative to public schools. more…
