Law & Sports

The purpose of the course is to gain a fundamental understanding of the variety of issues that arise in Sports Law. While we will touch on a few issues involving professional sports, most of our discussions will focus on Division I intercollegiate athletics.

For intercollegiate athletics, we will discuss regulating intercollegiate athletics, including the history of the NCAA, the relationship of the student athlete and the university, eligibility of student athletes, and the enforcement of NCAA rules. We will also cover various legal topics that arise in intercollegiate athletics, such as intellectual property law, antitrust laws, due process laws, labor and employment law, and issues involving equity, health and safety. This will include significant discussion on past impactful decisions involving Title IX, NIL, etc., and also current events.

For professional sports, we will cover an overview of the evolution of professional sports, the internal league governance structure, and the commissioner s authority. We will discuss labor law issues related to the development of free agency and the role of the players associations, laws on drug testing for both recreational drugs and performance enhancing drugs, and the NFL concussion protocol.

Course Requirements

Preparation for, attendance at, and participation in class: 25% of grade. Advance reading and preparation of questions to be asked of guest speakers; discussion of hypotheticals raised in class; and participation in regular class discussions offering reasoned opinion based on the status of the law is expected. Students are expected to attend every scheduled class, except for excuses recognized by the law school s policies. Attendance will be taken. If you are going to miss a portion of a class (arriving late or leaving early), please let us know in advance via e-mail if at all possible so that we are aware of the situation.

Class Presentation: 25% of grade. More information forthcoming as the semester proceeds.

End of semester examination: 50% of grade. Format to be determined. More information forthcoming as the semester proceeds.