From the Alston trial, currently in its fifth day, comes this observation from the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin:
I doubt coaches are paying much attention now, but if the day ever comes when the NCAA openly and actively lobbies for that antitrust exemption, it’ll sure be amusing to watch the light go on.
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UPDATE: Doubling down.
Filed under It's Just Bidness, See You In Court, The NCAA
A California court has issued “a tentative decision” that the show-cause order provisions in the NCAA bylaws violate California law.
“[The show-cause order provisions] are void as they constitute an unlawful restraint on engaging in a lawful profession,” Judge Frederick Shaller wrote.
Shaller’s determination is part of the latest filing in former USC football assistant Todd McNair’s civil lawsuit vs. the NCAA. In May, a jury in Los Angeles voted 9-3 in favor of the NCAA following a three-week defamation trial stemming from McNair’s involvement in the Reggie Bush extra-benefits scandal. Two of the four other allegations in McNair’s suit have been dropped, leaving just the declaratory relief allegation to be resolved.
Shaller said that declaratory relief for McNair in this matter was appropriate, and in that ruling commented on show-cause penalties.
“McNair’s ability to practice his profession as a college football coach has been restricted, if not preempted, not only in Los Angeles and California, but in every state in the country,” he wrote.
The NCAA’s reaction was mild (“We look forward to the opportunity to provide our objections to the court per California trial rules.”), but it’s got to be shitting a few bricks as it ponders the ramifications. If this order is finalized and affirmed on appeal, the state will become a haven for every coach you can think of who runs afoul of the NCAA. It’ll become one giant Second Chance U.
Those are the consequences of overplaying your hand against an assistant coach who pissed you off.
Filed under See You In Court, The NCAA
Everybody is back in front of Judge Wilken today for another antitrust battle.
The NCAA is ready to stand its ground.
“As was demonstrated in the O’Bannon case, the NCAA will show that our rules are essential to providing educational opportunities to hundreds of thousands of student-athletes across the country,” NCAA general counsel Donald Remy said in a statement.
“We are proud that many student-athletes can receive a college education debt-free, access to resources that ensure greater academic success, and an experience that will pay dividends for a lifetime. Allowing paid professionals to replace student-athletes on college campuses would change the face of college sports as we know it.”
Two things there, Donald. Student-athletes are already being paid and I didn’t notice any difference this past weekend. Also, don’t think I didn’t catch your “many student-athletes” qualifier there. If the experience is everything for the NCAA, why aren’t all student-athletes receiving that debt-free?
Filed under See You In Court, The NCAA
Num, num, num…
In case you had any doubts about whether Art Briles is scum…
Top Baylor University administrators discussed sexual assault allegations against Tevin Elliott and put potential disciplinary action on hold months before the then-football player raped another student, according to emails and other documents filed Thursday in a Title IX lawsuit against the school.
Art Briles, the former head football coach fired in May 2016 during the school’s sexual assault scandal, handed over the documents late last month in response to a subpoena from lawyers representing 10 women suing the school.
Emails included in a filing Thursday reveal administrators with oversight of student conduct discussing allegations against Elliott in October 2011, shortly before he raped a then-Baylor student in April 2012. Elliott is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexual assault in the case in January 2014. [Emphasis added.]
That’s why you sue assholes. Otherwise, you never find out what they’ve been up to.
I know it’s in defense of Chuck Person, who was in the employ of Bruce Pearl, so, yeah, anyway you look at it, there’s an underlying element of sleaze you can’t ignore, but, still, this makes me damned uncomfortable when I read it:
“Straining to charge the alleged NCAA rules violation as a federal crime, without any conceivable federal interest at stake in doing so, the government has concocted unworkable legal theories that lack any basis in the statutory language and exceed the constraints of due process,” Trzaskoma writes. “The federal government has no business policing the NCAA rules, and the superseding indictment should be dismissed.”
If there is some federal interest at play here, what is it, and, more importantly, why is it coming to a head now?
“The revised wire fraud theory in the superseding indictment does not fix any of the problems that were fatal to the original indictment and the government has failed to advance any persuasive arguments in its opposition brief that its federal criminal charges against Mr. Person are viable,” Trzaskoma writes. “… It is no exaggeration to say that the government’s new wire fraud theory (like its original theory) would criminalize nearly all undisclosed NCAA rule violations because every college coach and staff member routinely certifies compliance with the NCAA rules. … One need not be a careful student of college basketball to appreciate the number of coaches or athletic department employees who have failed to disclose known violations of the NCAA rules but who have not been prosecuted for federal wire fraud.”
Like Person’s former boss, for example, who just got a reworked contract, if I’m not mistaken.
Be careful what you wish for, Mark Emmert.
Filed under See You In Court, The NCAA
What an effing waste…
All that and NCAA Football canned, just so Mark Emmert wouldn’t have to share with players.
Filed under See You In Court, The NCAA
