February 28, 2014 · 2:51 PM

I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture …

And Judge Wilken has just ordered one in the O’Bannon case.

23 Comments

Filed under The NCAA

23 responses to “I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture …”

  1. Tom
    February 28, 2014 at 3:14 PM

    It seems the NCAA is holding firm and will not settle. Big mistake taking this to a jury.

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    • Mayor of Dawgtown
      February 28, 2014 at 4:36 PM

      +1. The judge is giving the NCAA every chance to get out of this with their business still intact. How stupid are these guys? Or simply arrogant?

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      • AthensHomerDawg
        February 28, 2014 at 4:46 PM

        Do you get that high up on the lawyer food chain by being stupid? This does not fit… 😉 I wonder if they have wild cards that they are just waiting to play. High stakes. You think these consigliores are self dealing?
        “Self-dealing, essentially, occurs when managers run companies to line their own pockets instead of those of the companies’ owners. It’s been a perennial problem in American capitalism and became a real dilemma when America moved toward a model in which corporations would be run by professional managers who had only small ownership stakes.”

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        • 81Dog
          February 28, 2014 at 6:10 PM

          me, personally, I think the NCAA attorneys may have poor client control, or maybe they’ve been gravy training on the NCAA so long that their conditioned response to any question from the NCAA is “Of course you can, and we can make it happen!”

          People with money can sometimes be arrogant; they’re usually used to people fawning over their every whim, they’ve often had some measure of success in their area of expertise, and they’re usually some combination of intelligent (at some level) and determined. This can make them very difficult when it comes to receiving bad news, even if it’s good advice.

          Of course, the NCAA guys could just have gotten so accustomed to running over people that it’s never occurred to them they could lose. It’s been a long time since the UGA-OU lawsuit that changed the televised sports business. Maybe their institutional memory isn’t that good, either.

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          • Mayor of Dawgtown
            February 28, 2014 at 7:56 PM

            “Of course, the NCAA guys could just have gotten so accustomed to running over people that it’s never occurred to them that they could lose.” I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with that, 81. And I also think you’re right about the “client control” problem the NCAA lawyers are having. It’s the NCAA types-not the lawyers-who are running the train off the cliff.

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  2. Mr. Sanchez
    February 28, 2014 at 3:39 PM

    Seems like this may be one of those we didn’t want them to hang themselves, but they just kept begging for more rope situations.

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  3. hassan
    February 28, 2014 at 3:44 PM

    This is all you needed to know…

    Donald Remy, NCAA chief legal officer, said in a statement: “The NCAA will of course participate in the court-ordered mediation, however, we will continue to protect the core principles of the collegiate model.”

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    • 81Dog
      February 28, 2014 at 6:13 PM

      has this guy been channeling Hale Almond’s trial prep for the Jan Kemp fiasco, errrr, lawsuit? It probably isn’t fair to blame that all on Hale, given that the UGA brain trust at the time was a pretty arrogant, overconfident bunch who took a bad hand and insisted that it be played badly. I think maybe they got a little cocky after beating the NCAA. Pride goes before a fall, right?

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      • Scorpio Jones, III
        February 28, 2014 at 6:27 PM

        The few people who took Jan Kemp The Litigation seriously, feared what was coming, lobbied hard to just give Jan Kemp her job back, were laughed or ordered out of the room. Hale Almond could only play the hand he was given…a pair of deuces.

        I was never in the room, but I was around folks who were for a long time.

        The O’Bannon suit has all the earmarks of a much bigger can of worms than Jan Kemp, with the same mixture of arrogance, ignorance and stupidity.

        Here’s a question for Bluto…can Tech afford to deal with the consequences of an NCAA loss? (said with tongue in cheek, but …..)

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        • AthensHomerDawg
          February 28, 2014 at 7:33 PM

          “The O’Bannon suit has all the earmarks of a much bigger can of worms than Jan Kemp, with the same mixture of arrogance, ignorance and stupidity.”
          Nobody gets admission to law school and practices at that level and stays in charge cause they are stupid. There are other things in play no one else is privy to. Somebody is rolling the dice. That early avoidance of workers comp scam is pretty damning. Yet all college sports is financed on the backs of football and basketball. What happens to title IX? What happens to college academic budgets that depend on draw downs from revenue sports? In this, today”s economic climate ? What will they do? Damn… they will forfeit what is good and right for the perceived greater good and that will be the mantra of the day sir. And for the record…. regardless of your opinion of Dr Kemp she was right. And it probably cost her more than we will ever appreciate.

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      • Hogbody Spradlin
        March 1, 2014 at 7:16 AM

        Remember the ghoulish but funny joke: ‘Make Jan Kemp next teacher in space.’

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  4. Hogbody Spradlin
    February 28, 2014 at 6:17 PM

    Judge ordered settlement conferences are very common. I’d like to be a fly on the wall.

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  5. Normaltown Mike
    February 28, 2014 at 7:29 PM

    NCAA thinks they are playing pre shot clock era b-ball & they can win the game with the old Dean Smith four corners.

    Only problem is they didn’t look at the scoreboard.

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  6. section Z alum
    March 1, 2014 at 8:33 AM

    elegant understatement:

    “There has been no serious expression of interest by the NCAA in resolving the antitrust exposure,” said Michael Hausfeld, a lead attorney for the O’Bannon plaintiffs. “Given their past and recent expression, it appears highly improbable that they would engage in any rational dialogue.”

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