Just when you thought this story couldn’t get any better… As I reported previously, the Cleveland Indians baseball team should have never underestimated a roller derby team. But they did, and now it’s bringing to light what is apparently a history of other leagues stealing roller derby names without any recognition or compensation whatsoever. The Cleveland Guardians roller derby squad is one of 65 members in a league called, the Men’s Roller Derby Association. Per reports, the Cleveland baseball team claims they knew the Guardians roller derby team was in existence and active. Yet, they chose to only complete their due diligence on the New York Guardians XFL team and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy – seemingly ignoring the local Cleveland roller derby team with the exact same name, the Cleveland Guardians. And now, I think we may have found out exactly why this was not properly dealt with. When we broke the story, #DerbyTwitter fled our replies and DM's here over at Conduct Detrimental HQ. And now, with help from our new friends over at the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), the Conduct Detrimental team has learned that this is not the first time a professional sports team has outright copied a derby team name from the same geographical market... without paying them a single dime. Let’s start with a little background on the WFTDA to paint the full picture. The WFTDA is the international governing body of women’s flat track roller derby representing more than 450 member leagues on 6 continents. The WFTDA sets the international standards for rankings, rules, and competition each year, and provides guidance and resources to the sport of flat track derby. Yes, they are a pretty big deal. More specifically, two roller derby leagues in the WFTDA caught our attention: Angel City Derby and Gotham Roller Derby. Angel City Derby was founded in 2006 by a collective of skaters, and the league is composed of nearly 200 members that compete against teams from the state of California and internationally. Angel City was one of the first leagues in Southern California to become a member of the WFTDA, joining in December 2007. Meanwhile, Gotham Roller Derby is based in New York City, and is the first flat track roller derby league in the metropolitan New York area and a founding member league of the WFTDA. Gotham is one of the preeminent leagues in roller derby, having won five WFTDA championships. Well, why am I telling you all of this? Because there is a women’s soccer team with a familiar name that will be the Los Angeles area’s first women’s professional team since the Los Angeles Sol folded in 2010. You guessed it… Angel City FC is a planned National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) expansion team that is expected to begin play in 2022. According to the LA Times, nearly four dozen of the team’s 60-plus investors are women – including actress Natalie Portman and champion athletes Abby Wambach, Serena Williams, Lindsey Vonn, and Candace Parker – making it the largest female ownership group in U.S. sports history. For an incoming women-led team that has outwardly stated to Sports Illustrated that their mission is to “provide an opportunity to some of the best professional female athletes in the world to play on a stage as powerful as Los Angeles [and] send a strong message to young girls in the community and beyond,” you’d think they would be lifting up other dominant female sports teams. But it seems like the opposite could have been the case. In fact, the announcement of the Angel City franchise caused backlash on social media among women’s sports fans and particularly roller derby fans due to the long-standing existence of the championship winning Angel City Derby. On October 21, 2020, the club officially confirmed it was keeping the name Angel City FC. Despite the outrage that was brought to the soccer club’s attention, the derby team was not approached about the name whatsoever before the decision was made. In 2021, another NWSL team was rebranded to don a familiar name to the roller derby community: Gotham FC. Formerly known as Sky Blue FC, the club rebranded to NJ/NY Gotham FC and revealed a new crest and color scheme to go with it. On both occasions, not a single dime was given to these clubs for blatantly copying their names within the same market. Is this beginning to sound familiar? Looking at you, Cleveland Baseball Team... Executive Director of the WFTDA, Erica Vanstone expressed that “Angel City and Gotham are two of [the WFTDA’s] biggest teams. Gotham is the former number one team in the world. It’s hard to believe the NWSL didn’t know they existed.” Vanstone went on to say that following the unveiling of these two women’s soccer clubs, she “did not expect to learn about the lack of advance outreach to these teams, especially from a women’s franchise coming into the market in which there had already been teams of the same names for over a decade.” When Vanstone was asked about the derby community’s reaction, she felt that “it presented a good opportunity for Angel City FC or Gotham to work with these teams to co-promote. Partnerships are the best case scenario to uplift women’s sports in general. But to my knowledge, no one was given the chance to have these conversations in advance, which was just disappointing. In my mind, regardless of IP conversations, these were such missed opportunities to build fans and engage the community around a brand launch – that’s the valuation mistake here.” Is this past history of other professional sports teams taking names from roller derby just a coincidence? I think not. Despite the fact that women’s roller derby is more widely-played as a sport than its men’s counterpart, Vanstone opined that “this is the third time this has happened and some members of our community are pointing out that folks are only just caring about it now because [the Cleveland Guardians] are a men’s team, which is a valid frustration for women in sports.” Yet, the first two times this type of branding conversation happened it came from other women’s sports teams: Angel City FC and Gotham FC. Certainly, the baseball team spent a lot of money researching the name and identifying potential legal hurdles. Baseball claims they knew about the roller derby team. And you would have to imagine that as part of their research, they learned about the above-mentioned history of other leagues copying the names of roller derby teams in their market and not paying them a single time. Assuming they knew that, it is conceivable -- if not plausible -- that Cleveland Baseball assumed that the Roller Derby Cleveland Guardians would go away quietly... just like Angel City and Gotham. But that's not the case here as we've seen since the July 23rd announcement. So now we can ask the question: What's more likely did the baseball team not Google, "Cleveland Guardians," or did they intentional look past them and figured they would cut corners and save costs since there was seemingly no precedent for pay a roller derby team in recent history... which we now know from our friends in the roller derby world. The baseball team made a critical oversight here. There's no way around it. The question now is are they willing to pay a roller derby handsomely to clean up the mess... or is it time to change the name and start over. Stephanie is a recent graduate of New York Law School and a law clerk at Geragos & Geragos. You can find her on Twitter @SWeissenburger_ and Instagram @Steph_ExplainsItAll

In the late-night hours of July 13, 2021, Richard Sherman’s wife, Ashely Sherman, called the King County Sheriff’s Office out of concern for her husband. Eventually, Richard Sherman was arrested outside his in-laws’ home and was then booked at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle. Sherman faces multiple charges, with suspicion of domestic violence underlying the charges. The reason for the domestic violence component of his charges is because he is related to the occupants of the residence where he was arrested; however, it should be clarified that nobody at the residence was ever harmed, and Sherman never entered the residence. When Ashely Sherman spoke to the media after her husband’s arrest, she stated, “ . . . he didn’t harm anybody” and “[m]y kids were not harmed in the incident. He’s a good person and this is not his character. We’re doing all right, just trying to get him out. I want people to know no one was injured.” Sherman’s initial hearing took place on July 15. At that hearing, the judge released Sherman on his promise to return to court for subsequent proceedings. The judge stated, “I see Mr. Sherman is a pillar of this community. He is a business owner. He is a husband. He is a father.” This sort of statement from a judge is refreshing because it establishes a sense of humanity and dignity that was lost during the initial reporting on Sherman’s struggles off the field. The initial reporting painted Richard Sherman as a domestic violence perpetrator and a substance abuser that drove while intoxicated, but the reality is that the situation is a much deeper issue of a struggling man with mental health concerns that the media all but forgot about in preying on his downfall at the outset. The initial reports failed to emphasize that he didn’t harm anyone or that his family was genuinely concerned about his mental health – instead he was depicted as a criminal because he was no longer seen as the famous idolized athlete that society and the media want him to be. Before the background of Sherman’s struggles came to light, he was viewed as a criminal through reports and first-hand Ring video surveillance that had zero surrounding context of what Sherman was going through and continues to go through. Eventually there were reports that expressed sympathy and put his arrest into context; however, that occurred much too late in the game only after those who knew him spoke out. Richard Sherman is tremendous community member and family man, and for the media to disregard his struggles and his privacy in perpetuating the leaks of what should’ve been private videos was a difficult frenzy to observe. To me, this is a prime example of society willing to praise athletes when they’re winning super bowls and changing their communities but then letting those same athletes drown with cinder blocks as soon any personal struggle ensues. We routinely engage in a superficial idolization of athletes – rather we should be cognizant of their lives as real people with real problems and real struggles. On an end note, I want to make it clear that I’m not saying we shouldn’t hold domestic violence perpetrators responsible, but we should just keep mental health and privacy concerns in mind when we attempt to delve into the personal lives of athletes as we know nothing about their mental state or their private lives. We glorify athletes’ fame and accolades, yet we drag them through the scrutinous limelight when they have any slip up and prey upon their downfall in a way that demonstrates a lack of sympathy for someone who’s struggling. We can – and should – do better in how we discuss athletes’ private lives and their personal struggles.

The life of a New York Giants fan offers you the highest highs and the lowest lows. I still romanticize the joyous memory of David Tyree catching a football on his helmet in Super Bowl XLII, but I am still haunted by the Deshaun Jackson’s punt return to win the game aka Miracle at the Meadowlands II. August 3, 2021 will not have the same imprint, but after a giant brawl (pun intended) occurred at training camp, it is safe to say that will be added to the column of bad memories. Football is a collision sport, violence is part of the nature of the game, and unfortunately that violence goes beyond a six second play. So where is the line for athletes? When do their actions go from, “it is the name of the game,” to legal ramifications? While the law tends to embrace the abstract, we do have a few cases that can help guide you when the next brawl happens. The case of Hackbart v. Cincinnati Bengals raised the issue of does a professional football player assume the risk of injury, thus denying him recovery of damages? The facts of this case are simple, Dale Hackbart, a member of the Denver Broncos, claimed he received injuries after an altercation from Charles Clark, a member of the Cincinnati Bengals.[1] The court ruled in favor of the Cincinnati Bengals raising the following point: even if Clark acted beyond the capacity of his professional duty, the high frequency of physical and emotional violence in the game was standard for the league. In laymen’s terms, you are playing a physical game, it comes with the territory. But for those of you that may be looking up the year of the case, you might proclaim, “Austin that was in the late 1970s, the league has changed!” Well, I am here to offer more examples to further draw the line. Let’s use an example from Nov. 2019, the Myles Garrett-Mason Rudolph fight. For this article, we will not discuss what was allegedly said and we will only use what was available to the naked eye. The odds of Garrett receiving criminal charges were low to begin with but using the legal definition of assault in the state of Ohio, the location of where the brawl occurred, the elements of assault must have the following: knowingly causing or attempting to cause physical harm on another person, with imminent apprehension. These elements are met. However, there is glaring absence in American jurisprudence of professional athletes being charged with assault-like crimes for incidents that occur during games. Prosecutors fear that charging individuals with these crimes would cause a complete disruption to the games itself. So where is the line? We will need to jump to a different sport, hockey to find an athlete being charged and convicted of assault. The incident I am referring to is Marty McSorley. Marty McSorley used his hockey stick that sent Vancouver Canuck, Donald Brashear, to the ice. Commissioner Gary Bettman stated, “clearly, this incident was not representative of NHL hockey or NHL players.” While it cannot be proven, McSorley was a regaled enforcer in the league, and since that ruling, the enforcer player, the “goon,” is slowly turning into the likes of the dodo bird, extinct. Like the many fears prosecutors had with the game of football, perhaps their worries came to fruition in the likes of hockey. Interestingly, this ruling occurred in Canada, so while there is similar jurisprudence to American law, it cannot be said that they are the same. Now, to answer the initial question, where is the line? Judging from rulings and how courts have interpreted the game, a brawl would need to go beyond fists and helmets, the crime itself would need to become so egregious that it went beyond the cold tundra, examples may be: a player, I do not know how this would happen, bringing a deadly weapon on to the field, or something to that extremity. If you are a professional athlete, my non-expert, non-legal advice is this, do not get into a serious brawl in Canada. Even with potential injuries, sports are the modern-day version of Roman gladiators, if you have the willingness and courage to step on to the professional field, to quote Public Enemy, “welcome to the terror dome.” [1] Hackbart v. Cincinnati Bengals, 435 F. Supp. 352 (D. Colo. 1977).

NCAA sports have been on summer break, but that has not stopped collegiate athletics from making headlines. On June 21, 2021, the Supreme Court issued its decision in NCAA v. Alston, 594 U.S. ___ (2021), unanimously striking down an NCAA restriction on the education-related benefits a college can offer student-athletes. Then, on July 1, numerous state laws and an NCAA rule change went into effect that allow college athletes to receive compensation for their name, image, and likeness (NIL). While those developments have left their mark, what’s coming next may have an even bigger impact on the NCAA. Enter In re College Athlete NIL Litigation (a.k.a. In re NIL Litigation), a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The story of In re NIL Litigation begins on June 15, 2020 when Grant House, a swimmer from Arizona State, and Sedona Prince, a basketball player from the University of Oregon (who later went viral for other reasons), filed a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA and the Power Five Conferences (Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and ACC). About three weeks later on July 8, 2020, Tymir Oliver, a former defensive tackle for the University of Illinois with the same local attorney as House and Prince, filed a substantially similar lawsuit against the NCAA. House, Prince, and Oliver (the Plaintiffs) challenged the NCAA’s prohibition against student athletes receiving compensation for their NIL, arguing that the prohibition violates antitrust laws because it constitutes a conspiracy to fix the amount student athletes may be paid for licensing and selling their NIL at $0, and because it prevents student athletes from accessing the market for the licensing and/or sale of their NIL. On behalf of all current and former Division I student athletes who competed during the four years prior to the filing of the lawsuits, the Plaintiffs sought an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the NCAA’s restraint on NIL compensation. On behalf of athletes in the Social Media Damages Sub-Class,[1] the Plaintiffs sought social media earnings athletes would have received if not for the NCAA’s NIL restraints. And on behalf of athletes in the Group Licensing Damages Sub-Class,[2] the Plaintiffs sought the share of game telecast group licensing revenue athletes would have received absent the NCAA’s NIL restraints. Fast forward to today. On July 14, 2021, the District Court entered an order combining the House and Oliver lawsuits into In re NIL Litigation. On July 26, 2021, the Plaintiffs filed a Consolidated Amended Complaint. Among other things, the Amended Complaint added a Lost Opportunities Damages Sub-Class[3] and a Former Players Damages Sub-Class,[4] and added players on FBS football teams at independent schools to the definition of the Group Licensing Damages Sub-Class. The Amended Complaint also cites the Alston decision, pointing out that the unanimous Supreme Court rejected the NCAA’s position that its amateurism restraints are not subject to traditional antitrust analyses. The NCAA had argued that NCAA v. Board of Regents, 468 U.S. 85, 119 (1984) contemplated an antitrust exemption for the NCAA’s amateurism model. But the Supreme Court rejected this argument, instead finding that the NCAA is subject to rule of reason antitrust scrutiny because it exercises monopsony (i.e. a single buyer controls the demand for goods or services) power in the market for student-athlete services. Based on this finding, the Alston court rejected the existence of an amateurism exemption and found that the NCAA’s restraint on education benefits violated U.S. antitrust law. While Justice Neil Gorsuch made sure to state in his majority Alston opinion that it was only intended to apply to the contested restriction on education benefits, it is not difficult to see how the Supreme Court’s rejection of an amateurism exception to antitrust law could extend to the challenged NIL restraints in In re NIL Litigation. Further, Justice Kavanaugh was not so restrained in his concurring opinion, specifically addressing the legality of the NCAA’s remaining compensation rules and stating that they should each be subject to a rule of reason analysis without the benefit of an amateurism exemption. He even went so far as to acknowledge that the NCAA is “suppressing the pay of student athletes” by engaging in price-fixing of the athletes’ labor, suggesting that he believes it violates antitrust law to prevent athletes from being paid directly for their labor. The NCAA has 21 days to answer the Amended Complaint, a deadline that falls on August 16, 2021. This will be the first in-court opportunity the NCAA has to take a position on the Supreme Court’s Alston decision and how it affects their amateurism model. One can expect the NCAA to argue that the Alston decision is limited to the educational benefits restraint it specifically addressed, and therefore it has no bearing on whether the NCAA should pay damages for past NIL benefits class members would have received if not for the NIL restraints. But with the rejection of the antitrust exemption in Alston and Kavanaugh’s questioning of whether any price-fixing measure put in place by the NCAA survives antitrust scrutiny, it’s hard to see how the NCAA’s defense holds up. We could be looking at the complete restructuring of the NCAA amateurism model, and the young athletes of today are here for it. [1] The Social Media Damages Sub-Class is defined as all current and former student-athletes who compete on or competed on an NCAA Division I team in a one of the Power Five Conferences at any time between four years prior to filing the lawsuit and the date of judgment. [2] The Group Licensing Damages Sub-Class is defined as all former NCAA athletes who competed on a Division I athletic team at any time between four years prior to filing the lawsuit and the date of judgment. [3] The Lost Opportunities Damages Sub-Class is defined as all current Division I athletes in the second or later year of eligibility (or first year of eligibility after receiving a red shirt the prior year) who receive NIL compensation for all or any part of the period between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. [4] The Former Player Damages Sub-Class is defined as all former NCAA athletes who competed on a Division I athletic team at any time between June 15, 2016 and the time of trial who would have receive NIL compensation if not for the NCAA’s restraints.

Coming off a division one-leading 14 win season with 179 strikeouts in 122 innings,[1] Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker finds himself without a contract after being drafted 10th overall by the New York Mets with a $6 million signing bonus. Though his stock fell as the draft neared, Rocker was still regarded as one of the top pitchers in college baseball, rivaled by fellow Commodore and 2nd overall pick, Jack Leiter. What went so wrong between draft day and the signing deadline that one of the top pitching prospects going into the draft was left without a chance at the majors until 2022? As with many top prospects, Rocker was selected for the pre-draft MRI program which would have made his medical information available for all thirty MLB teams. Skipping this program is not uncommon; in fact, Scott Boras - who represents Rocker, amongst other Major Leaguers and Major League hopefuls - advises his clients against participating in it. Following his selection, Rocker completed his physical examination with the Mets which led to concerns over the health of his arm.[2] Boras maintains that his client is healthy, but to no avail as the parties were unable to come to new terms prior to the signing deadline.[3] Though issues with physical examinations cannot always be predicted ahead of time, many have criticized the Mets for not anticipating this outcome, as Rocker’s velocity was noticeably down later in his junior season at Vanderbilt.[4] With that being said, selecting Rocker in the first place was not necessarily a bad move for the Mets, but how they handled the rest of the draft and their draft pool was. Described as “arcane” by one reporter, the draft pool warrants its own explanation so we can truly understand where the Mets went wrong. It’s your birthday, cheers to you! Your grandparents sent you an assortment of gift cards, each one with a different value. Let’s say you got a Dunkin’ gift card for $25, a Cava gift card for $15, and a Target gift card for $10. In all you have $50 to spend, but because they are gift cards and not cash, you can only spend them at their assigned business. Now say the Dunkin’ in your town closed down, so you can no longer spend your $25 gift card. You don’t lose any money, and the money on the gift card doesn’t go away, but you don’t get to use it elsewhere. You still have $50 in gift cards, but with the ability to spend only $25 of it. That’s essentially how draft pools work. The Mets had about $9 million in their draft pool, with each pick in the draft having a slotted value - in the 2021 Draft, the 10th overall pick had a slot of about $4.7 million. The Mets spent that $4.7 million “gift card” on Rocker when they drafted him 10th, but lost out on it when they decided not to sign him. While this money doesn’t necessarily come out of anyone’s pockets, it can’t be utilized elsewhere. So the Mets chose not to sign Rocker and lost out on using $4.7 million of their draft pool, but it doesn’t stop there. Rocker’s slot value can be thought of as a sunk cost, which refers to costs that have already been incurred and are unable to be recovered. As soon as the Mets drafted and decided not to sign Rocker, that $4.7 million signing bonus became a sunk cost. Where the Mets continued to make mistakes is offering Rocker a signing bonus $1.3 million overslot, for a total of $6 million. In order to do this, the Mets had to sign six of their remaining nine picks in the first half of the draft underslot.[5] Now, not only are they unable to use the $4.7 million gift card, they lost out on being able to spend the $1.3 million gift card as well. There is a way this could have been avoided: by taking out an “insurance policy” in the second half of the draft. Scouting sources from various teams have noted that it is “standard operating procedure” to draft a player in later rounds to redirect any overslot value should a situation like Rocker’s arise.[6] If the Mets took an insurance pick, Rocker’s $4.7 million slot would have still been a sunk cost, but the $1.3 million would have been available for redirect to that insurance pick. Unfortunately for the Mets, they had already agreed to terms with their 11th-20th round picks and were not able to divert Rocker’s overslot money to them. In the end, the Mets lost out on utilizing $6 million of their $9 million draft pool. While the Mets won’t get Rocker, they will get the 11th overall pick in the 2022 draft as a compensation pick for not signing the pitcher. Typically, in order to get a compensation pick, teams have to offer the unsigned player 40% of his slotted bonus. Sources have stated that the Mets never even put a contract on the table for Rocker to accept or reject, but Rocker’s decision to forgo the pre-draft MRI program means the Mets can still get the compensation pick without offering Rocker anything.[7] As for Rocker, he will be able to enter the 2022 MLB Draft but cannot sign to a Major League team in the meantime. Though he is eligible to do so, reports have stated that Rocker has ruled out returning to Vanderbilt for his senior season, leaving him with a few options: sign to an independent or international team, or continue to practice and host open workouts as the 2022 Draft nears.[8] This last option is an attractive one for former Commodores, as Vanderbilt has a locker room specifically for professional players - including David Price, Sonny Gray, and Mike Minor - returning to campus to workout. Rocker’s former teammate, Jack Leiter, plans to spend the fall working out at Vanderbilt while continuing his progress toward his degree as opposed to pitching in the minors or playing in the Arizona Fall League.[9] While the Mets’ mishandling of the 2021 Draft should serve as a lesson to the organization, it should also serve as a red flag to the MLBPA. Professor Mark Edelman notes that the next round of collective bargaining between the league and the players association should include creating less restrictive rules for first-year draft picks.[10] He suggests an updated draft system that would automatically create a contract between a player and the team who drafts him, or a supplemental draft should a team decide not to sign one of their picks.[11] In the end, the ones who suffer the most as a result of this blunder are, of course, Rocker, and baseball fans everywhere who will not have the opportunity to see him pitch in the majors for upwards of another year. Jake Mintz of The Ringer Podcast Network pointed out that the Mets are facing very few repercussions for botching this draft; sure, they lost the chance to use two-thirds of their draft pool, but they still came out of this with the 11th overall pick in the 2022 Draft, whereas Rocker is left “out in the wind.”[12] Let’s hope the MLBPA considers this in their next round of collective bargaining so they can protect future draft picks from ending up in “baseball purgatory.”[13] Rebekah Ansbro is a second year law student at George Mason University where she is the outreach & social media chair and events chair for the Mason Sport and Entertainment Law Association. You can connect with Rebekah about sport and entertainment law on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekah-ansbro-21a24115a. [1] Statistics, D1 Baseball (2021). https://d1baseball.com/statistics/ [2] McDaniel, K., Passan, J., New York Mets don't sign first-round draft pick Kumar Rocker before deadline, ESPN (Aug 1, 2021). https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31934790/new-york-mets-plan-sign-top-pick-kumar-rocker-concerns-physical-exam-sources-say [3] Ibid. [4] Anderson, R., How the New York Mets botched their Kumar Rocker selection in the 2021 MLB Draft, CBS (Aug 2, 2021). https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/how-the-new-york-mets-botched-their-kumar-rocker-selection-in-the-2021-mlb-draft/ [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] McDaniel, K., Passan, J., New York Mets don't sign first-round draft pick Kumar Rocker before deadline, ESPN (Aug 1, 2021). https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31934790/new-york-mets-plan-sign-top-pick-kumar-rocker-concerns-physical-exam-sources-say [8] Anderson, R., What’s next for Kumar rocker after Mets fail to sign former Vanderbilt star?, CBS (Aug 2, 2021). https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/whats-next-for-kumar-rocker-after-mets-fail-to-sign-former-vanderbilt-star/ [9] Gerson, A., 'Forever thankful': Jack Leiter lauds Vanderbilt baseball after signing with Rangers, Tennessean (July 28, 2021). https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/vanderbilt/2021/07/28/jack-leiter-vanderbilt-baseball-after-texas-rangers/5408387001/ [10] Edelman, M., Unsigned New York Mets Draft Pick Kumar Rocker Can Place Some Of Blame On MLB Players Association, Forbes (Aug 2, 2021). https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2021/08/02/unsigned-mets-draft-pick-kumar-rocker-has-union-partially-to-blame/?sh=12b5aa8d2cb6 [11] Ibid. [12] Mintz, J., Who Actually Has a Shot at Winning the World Series?, The Ringer (Aug 3, 2021). https://www.theringer.com/2021/8/3/22608384/who-actually-has-a-shot-at-winning-the-world-series [13] Edelman, M., Unsigned New York Mets Draft Pick Kumar Rocker Can Place Some Of Blame On MLB Players Association, Forbes (Aug 2, 2021). https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2021/08/02/unsigned-mets-draft-pick-kumar-rocker-has-union-partially-to-blame/?sh=12b5aa8d2cb6

On July 28, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made a historic announcement: “With the 2nd pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets select, Jalen Green, from Merced, California and the NBA G-League Ignite.” That’s right. The 2nd pick in the 2021 NBA Draft surpassed college basketball to play in the NBA’s G-League, the NBA’s official minor league. Though Green was not a part of the pageantry of March Madness, nor did he receive national media attention playing for a major college program, Green did receive something many of his fellow draft picks could not: $500,000. Prior to Green’s announcement to play for the G-League Ignite, Jalen was ranked the 2nd best high school basketball player in the country and was seriously considering playing college basketball (Green said he would’ve gone to the University of Memphis if not for the G-League). But money talks, and $500,000 speaks volumes to a high school kid. Apparently, so does $300,000 and $250,000, which is what former UCLA commit Daishen Nix and former Michigan Wolverines commit Isaiah Todd made playing for the Ignite. Nix and Todd verbally committed to college programs before decommitting and choosing to turn pro. But G-League Ignite isn’t the only professional option for recruits. Other high school stars such as LaMelo Ball and R.J. Hampton skipped college and played professionally in New Zealand. Sports content brand Overtime created their own professional basketball league, Overtime Elite, and signed Jalen Lewis, the 12th ranked high schooler in the class of 2023, to a $1,000,000 contract. These pro options either were formed or became prominent options thanks to the NCAA not allowing college athletes to benefit from their name, image, and likeness. However, as the famous Florence and The Machine lyric goes, “The dog days are over. The dog days are gone.” On July 1, 2021, college athletes became eligible to benefit from their name, image, and likeness. As fellow Conduct Detrimental writer Jake Rubenstein wrote, this monumental change in the NCAA is already showing its affects on college football recruiting with phenom Quinn Ewers. Ewers chose to skip his senior season of high school to enroll in Ohio St. allowing him to capitalize on his growing brand. Like in college football and every other college sport, NIL’s effects on college basketball are in its infancy. Now that college athletes can benefit from their NIL, will more top tier basketball recruits choose college over professional routes? Are universities telling recruits, this is how much you would make from your NIL if you go here? Will NIL help smaller programs attract better players or make the allure of a blueblood irresistible? Only time will give definitive answers to those questions. But two high school basketball recruits decision will set a precedent future recruits may follow: Jalen Duren and Emoni Bates. Duren is the number 1 high school basketball player in the class of 2022 and a purebred stallion who perfectly fits the mold of the modern NBA big. After watching several videos of Duren, Adebayo is the perfect comp to Duren. At 6’10 with a 7’5 wingspan, Duren is mega athletic, can defend positions 1-5, protects the rim, finishes with ferocity, and has the touch to hit floaters and fade-away jump shots with consistency. The combination of Duren’s high floor and sky-high ceiling leaves NBA scouts and college programs salivating. He announced a couple days ago that he will make his decision on Friday, August 6. Memphis, Miami, Kentucky, the NBL, and the G-League make up his top 5 options at the next level. Bates was the number 2 recruit in the class of 2022 and decommitted from Michigan State. The initial buzz was that he was a lock to go pro. However, he just reclassified to the class of 2021 as I was writing this article on August 4 and narrowed his list to Memphis, Oregon, Michigan State, and the G-League. To put it simply, Bates’s player comparison is Kevin Durant. Need I say more? As of now, nobody knows where Duren or Bates will go. Will they follow the trend started by Jalen Green, LaMelo Ball, and many others and go pro? Or will they set a precedent for future elite high school basketball recruits in the NIL era and choose college? I have no idea. But… “Can’t you hear the horses? ‘Cause here they come.” Francis Carlota is a recent graduate of California Western School of Law in San Diego, CA, where he became the ABA Negotiation Competition National Champion and was the Vice-President of the Entertainment and Sports Law Society. You can reach Francis on Twitter @SluggaSports or through email, [email protected].

We have all read the stories and seen the pictures. However, what is going on behind the scenes? Every potential criminal case begins the same way: The initial complaint. The initial complaint is where the alleged victim makes statement(s) to law enforcement regarding the potential criminal liability of another person. The exception being if the alleged victim is deceased. In over three years as prosecutor, I prosecuted violent crimes, drug crimes, white collar crimes, and sex crimes. I interviewed thousands of potential victims/witnesses. The goal of every one of those interviews was to get to one thing: The Truth. How does the Pasadena Police Department and (if necessary) the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office get to that? Facts. Remember this saying with any criminal case, facts win cases. However, the criminal case against Mr. Bauer has not filed yet and as such this case is still a civil matter with an independent criminal investigation. This article is the first in a series of articles that will be written case of Trevor Andrew Bauer develops. These articles will explain what happens before a case is filed (with the likely reasons why it was filed), preparing for a domestic violence trial (what goes into it, what challenges will the prosecution likely face), and finally the resolution of the case (whether it be a trial with a verdict, a plea, or a dismissal). Facts as we know them to be: According to reports, on or about April 21, 2021, Trevor Bauer was messaging with a woman from Instagram. That woman stated that she drove from her home in San Diego to Mr. Bauer’s home in Pasadena. They talked for a bit then engaged in sexual relations. Mr. Bauer asked if the woman had ever been choked before and she stated that she had. She stated that she had previously engaged in sexual relations where the other individual applied light pressure to her neck. However, the woman stated that Mr. Bauer put his fingers down her throat in an aggressive manner and she asked him to stop. Mr. Bauer stopped for a moment. He then allegedly wrapped the alleged victim’s hair around her neck and caused her to lose consciousness. The woman allegedly woke up to find Mr. Bauer having anal sex with her. She used the bathroom after the encounter where she realized she was bleeding from her anus and was barely able to walk. However, it is her contention that she did not believe Mr. Bauer to be a threat to her. She stated in her official statement for her restraining order that she never wanted anal sex nor did she ever consent to it. Mr. Bauer allegedly texted, “You feeling a little sore this morning?” in a joking manner. Mr. Bauer and the woman continued to communicate via text and Instagram for the next several weeks. The communications allegedly were about baseball, the woman’s new job, and they also communicated in a sexual nature. On or about May 15, 2021,Mr. Bauer allegedly invited the woman over to his house again and this time they agreed to use a “safe word”. For those who are unaware, a “safe word” is an agreed upon word by a couple engaging in sexual relations where both parties agreed to cease the activity if the other utters the safe word. As stated by the woman, about five minutes into sexual relations, Mr. Bauer began to choke her again and she lost consciousness as well as her ability to speak. When she awoke, Mr. Bauer was allegedly punching her in the head. Mr. Bauer allegedly then flipped the woman onto her stomach and again choked her with her own hair which again caused her to lose consciousness. The day after the second incident, the woman claimed to have sought treatment for her injuries from the Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in San Diego on May 16, 2021. As a result of the second incident, the woman reportedly had two black eyes, a bloodied swollen lip, significant bruising and scratching to one side of her face. The woman was allegedly diagnosed with an acute head injury and assault by manual strangulation. Mr. Bauer reportedly attempted to contact the woman on numerous occasions and finally spoke to the woman on the phone with police present. This call is what is called a “controlled call”. A “controlled call” is a call where law enforcement has the victim call the alleged offender and get them to make admissions. That is because, those statements by the Defendant are not hearsay and thus admissible in Court. Additionally, those statements could be testified to by multiple law enforcement officers to corroborate what the victim likely stated in her testimony. The reason is that law enforcement is almost always listening to the exchanges between the two parties and may record the call depending on the wiretapping statute for that particular state. In that call, the woman alleged asked Mr. Bauer, “What did you do to me when I was unconscious?” Mr. Bauer reportedly admitted to punching the woman in the buttocks and when the woman tried to explain to Mr. Bauer that she did not consent to that, he attempted to change the conversation. The Athletic first reported details from the restraining order. Where is the case currently at? The woman currently has been granted a temporary restraining order or “TRO”. However, the woman and Mr. Bauer will reportedly have a court hearing on the woman’s motion for a permanent restraining order that is set to begin on August 16, 2021. The expectation is that the hearing while last until August 19, 2021. These restraining order hearings are mini-trials. The woman will take the stand and explain to the judge why the Judge should grant her restraining order. Under California’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act (DVPA), a Court may issue a restraining order to prevent domestic violence or abuse if the party seeking the order “shows, to the satisfaction of the court, reasonable proof of a past act or acts of abuse. “Abuse includes intentionally or recklessly causing or attempting to cause bodily injury to, attacking, striking, stalking, threatening, harassing, making annoying telephone calls to, or disturbing the peace of the other party.” Thus, the Judge would have to find that the woman showed, to the satisfaction of the Court, that Mr. Bauer previously abused this woman. In these hearings, the Petitioner’s attorneys (the woman’s attorneys) have the power to call Mr. Bauer to the stand to testify. Mr. Bauer, if called to testify, has two options. One is that he must answer the Plaintiff’s attorney(s) questions truthfully. The second option is that he could invoke his right against self-incrimination and choose not to answer any question that may incriminate himself. Mr. Bauer might have the urge to try to tell his side of the story. However, it is likely that his attorneys will advise him to respond to every question with a, “On the advice of counsel, I am invoking my right against self-incrimination”. Under the United States Constitution, Mr. Bauer never has to be a witness against himself. His attorneys’ advice might be something similar to this, “This hearing isn’t the whole ballgame. You aren’t ever going to see this woman socially again. If we lose this hearing, it is not the end of the world. This hearing is a long way from a conviction for anything. Invoke your right against self-incrimination. Sure, the decision of the Court will eventually become public and the transcript will eventually find its way to a reporter who will write that you invoked your constitutional right against self-incrimination. Some people might assume you are guilty because you invoked. However, it is your best course of action. I advise you to invoke because this hearing is being recorded. Either the audio is being recorded or a court-reporter is taking down every word you say. Either way, if criminal investigation yields charges for sexual assault and the case ends up going to trial, I can promise you that you don’t want your own words being used against in an aggravated sexual battery trial.” That being said, his attorneys could get aggressive with this matter. That is because they are aware that the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office will be monitoring this hearing exceptionally closely. This hearing essentially allows the case (as it is currently developed) to be heard by a judge. Law enforcement and potentially the woman’s doctor might testify on her behalf. The hearing will also be likely be the first time that the woman faces questioning from Mr. Bauer’s attorneys. How she presents as a witness and how she holds up on the stand matters. In the next part, I will discuss the biggest question that law enforcement and the prosecution will have and that is why she went to his house a second time after her life-threatening first encounter with Mr. Bauer. Matthew F. Tympanick is an Associate Attorney at Wicker Smith in Sarasota, Florida. He is a graduate of University of Massachusetts School of Law where he served as a Public Interest Fellow and as a Staff Editor on UMass Law Review. He was previously a felony prosecutor in Sarasota, Florida. You can follow him on Twitter @Tympanick20.

Sports law is an ever-evolving and expanding subset of the law, and as the recent NCAA v. Alston ruling, NIL, and Super League controversy have shown, there are far more legal roles in sports than the typical pro agent. From arbitration and player unions to compliance and contracts, a law degree can open the door to a wide range of opportunities at both the collegiate and professional level of athletics. Many law schools around the country recognize the potential of sports law and offer some opportunities in the field, while some boast full-fledged sports law programs and concentrations. However, unlike business law and health law, U.S. News & World doesn’t offer lists detailing sports law programs; this makes the law school search difficult for a prospective 1L with aspirations for a career in sports. Enter the Sports Law Program Spotlight! In this monthly series, we will highlight a law school that offers strong opportunities in the field of sports law. These opportunities include, but are not limited to: ● a sports-centric curriculum; ● sports law certifications; ● unique legal internship opportunities within the sports market; ● and sports law journals. The focus of this month’s Sports Law Program Spotlight is… Marquette University Law School Known nationally for their stellar basketball program, Marquette is a true Blue Blood of the sports law world. Directed by Professors Matt Mitten and Paul M. Anderson, MU Sports Law has pumped out a list of compliance directors and sports attorneys longer than a Milwaukee bar tab on Thirsty Thursdays. Among them are Mike Sneathern and Greg Heller, CLO for the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Braves, respectively; as of 2021, Mr. Sneathern has more NBA Championship rings than James Harden. Law is a naturally adversarial profession, and law school generally prepares you for that. However, MU Sports Law gets your competitive juices flowing in the specific arena of sports arbitration. The Basketball Negotiation, Baseball Arbitration, Game Day Case Competition, Sports Law Negotiation, and Sports Law Moot Court teams allow MU Law students to compete nationally in a sports law setting. Iron sharpens iron, and when you’re arguing against the brightest future sports lawyers at other schools, you get a chance to hone your sports negotiation abilities against your peers. Caution: while it can get heated, leave the pushing and shoving on the court, not in court. (Photo Credit: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) Affiliated with the neighboring National Sports Law Institute (NSLI), Marquette Law students have the opportunity to earn a certificate from the NSLI upon graduation after meeting a list of requirements. These requirements include completing both the Amateur/Professional Sports Law course offerings and a sports law workshop diving into one of many topics ranging from NCAA compliance and governance to representing professional athletes and coaches. In Fall of their 2L year, students participate in a writing competition to join the Marquette Sports Law Review, one of the premier sports law journals in the country and the nation’s first law review focused solely on sports scholarship. As many firms will tell you, a staff position on a law review is a major resumé booster in the legal job market. Another major resumé booster is an internship, and at Marquette Law, supply outstrips demand. In Spring 2021 alone, sports law students interned with the athletic departments at Marquette, Eastern Michigan University, Fordham University, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, Notre Dame College, Temple University, the University of Minnesota, the University of South Florida, the UW school system, the University of Wyoming, and Weber State University. Perhaps you don’t wish to work in a particular athletic department and want to oversee the broader national collegiate athletics landscape; Marquette Law students annually secure internships with the NCAA’s headquarters in Indianapolis. If collegiate athletics don’t excite you, perhaps this will: Marquette Law has longstanding sports law internship programs with both the Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers, along with alumni connections in Major League Baseball’s New York offices. Students also secured internships with US Speedskating, as well as various sports agencies and firms. In short, Marquette produces internships in every corner of the sports law community. So there you have it: Marquette University Sports Law is a bona fide Blue Blood in sports law circles. The program commands respect from professionals in the field and provides countless experiences to ensure the next generation of sports lawyers are brighter than the last. If you’re an undergrad interested in a legal career in sports, join hundreds of successful sports professionals and consider MU Law.

Country clubs have a longstanding reputation for being incredibly exclusionary - which is accurate, as many were created to keep certain groups of people out or to only include another group. As it stands in 2021, there are reportedly still several country clubs across the globe that do not allow women or those of a specific religious group to join. Because country clubs are private businesses, they are typically allowed to make the rules as to who is allowed in, and who is not, even if it is a violation of federal or state anti-discrimination laws. As a result of a womens’ rights movement, Augusta National Golf Club, home of the famed Masters Tournament, began to allow women members to join in 2012, with former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice leading the way as one of only three female members of the club. According to reports, male-only country clubs often change who they allow as members because they are holding major championships and want to keep the professional organizations happy. Up until a few months ago, Pine Valley Country Club, located in Pine Valley, New Jersey, was reportedly one of the clubs that did not allow female golfers to join the club. It appears the Club did not decide to change their one hundred year plus status as “male only” to include women out of the goodness of their hearts. Instead, they were seemingly forced to do so because the golf course was the focus of a discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit actually arose out of a housing discrimination claim -- the town of Pine Valley allowed only male members of the club to purchase homes in the town. Since women could not become members of the Club -- women were only allowed to play golf on Sunday afternoons as it was -- they could not become homeowners and so the course found itself in a legal battle. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination explicitly states that one cannot deny the sale or rental of housing based on any protected characteristic, including gender. The New Jersey Division of Civil Rights has apparently had their eye on the 23 homes in Pine Valley for years, which culminated on April 30, 2021. The club president wrote that at the Annual Meeting of the Members, they decided to change the bylaws, remove gender specific language, and “move toward inclusion,” which really means: we are moving away from costly lawsuits, so, we will allow women to grace our premises now. Pine Valley has now accepted the memberships of Annika Sorenstam, one of the best female golfers of all time, as well as two decorated golf amateurs. As someone who was denied the ability to play Pine Valley because of her gender, I am particularly happy to see actual change occurring within the golf world, though there is certainly much more that can be done. It is still frustrating that it took 108 years and a massive lawsuit for the club to change but there is hope for the future of womens’ golf. Sources: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/pine-valley-women-members https://golf.com/news/pine-valley-first-female-members-announced/#:~:text=When%20Pine%20Valley%20Golf%20Club,by%20club%20president%20Jim%20Davis. Photo Source: https://www.nj.com/news/2021/06/elite-nj-golf-club-that-finally-opened-to-women-was-focus-of-discrimination-investigation.html

MLB Structure and the CBA’s Role: Major League Baseball (“MLB”) is governed by a Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”) negotiated between the Commissioner’s Office and the Major League Baseball Players Association (“MLBPA”). The Commissioner’s Office represents both MLB and Team Owners while the MLBPA negotiates on behalf of the players. An important note is that the MLBPA only represents Major League players, which does not include (i) Minor League players who have never been on a MLB 40-man roster, (ii) International free agents (before they reach the major leagues), and (iii) Players who have just been drafted. Major League Baseball’s Minor League infrastructure is unlike anything in the National Football League (“NFL”), National Basketball League (“NBA”), or National Hockey League (“NHL”), which has led to the MLBPA becoming the only of North America’s four main professional sports unions that does not represent all of its players. Because the MLBPA only represents Major League players, there are several important parties that are left unrepresented at the CBA negotiations, such as the three groups of players mentioned above. As a result, the major breakthroughs and compromises negotiated during the CBA discussions do not reflect the interests of all baseball players whose salaries and livelihoods are dictated by Major League Baseball. Current CBA Terms and Impacts on Minor Leaguers: The current CBA, which was agreed upon in 2016 and runs until the end of the 2021 season, included several compromises on behalf of both the MLB and the MLBPA. Still, some issues that should have merited more attention were brushed to the back of the agenda. After all, the two parties to the negotiations (the Commissioner’s Office and MLBPA) each have their own constituents that they must first and foremost look after. For instance, Minor League Baseball (MiLB) labor conditions have been dismal for decades, which has been well publicized (examples here, here, and here), and at times can present an insurmountable obstacle for the hard-working young men looking to achieve their dreams. Before the 2021 season, MLB condensed the amount of minor league teams – cutting down hundreds of previously available jobs for players – and mandated higher wages for the players that remained. According to reports, on average, Triple-A players make $14,700, Double-A players make $12,600, and Single-A players make $10,500 in total salary for five months of work. Those salary figures do not consider that minor leaguers traditionally do not get paid during spring training nor are they compensated for any overtime hours, despite frequently working 12-hour work-days. In the summer of 2018, I worked for a minor league team and lived with as many as six different professional baseball players at once, in a two-bedroom home. Almost all the players slept on couches or blow-up mattresses, and each of them made less than the federal minimum wage in salary. Many minor leaguers work additional jobs in the offseason to supplement their miniscule baseball related income. Yet, the CBA, ratified in 2016 by MLB and the MLBPA, did not mention anything about MiLB labor conditions or wages. It did include, however, an agreement to raise the minimum salary for only Major League Players each season from 2017-2021 (from $535,000 in 2017 to $570,500 in 2021). The amount of that wage increase ($35.5K) is more than double the amount a Triple-A player makes in a full Minor League season. Major League players have the privilege of having the MLBPA to fight on their behalf. Minor League players, many of whom must fight to stay above not only the Mendoza line, but also the poverty line, did not even have a seat at the table. Current Efforts / Looking Forward: Without much financial incentive, it is unlikely that the MLBPA would be willing to absorb minor league baseball players into the union. However, media pressure and increased public exposure to the abysmal labor conditions may lead to further change. Organizations like Advocates for Minor Leaguers (@MiLBAdvocates) and the courageous efforts of former minor leaguers such as Garrett Broshuis in the court of law have already led to progress from MLB teams. As recently as two weeks ago, several Los Angeles Angels prospects disclosed details about the Club’s MiLB conditions. Hopefully the Angels administration can follow the examples set by the Boston Red Sox – who are offering extended training back pay and retroactive housing stipends – as well as the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets, who joined twelve other teams in paying salaries to minor league players at extended spring training, and in turn improve living conditions. Perhaps one day.

Even before the news came down that the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma were leaving the Big 12 to head to the SEC, the SEC was already universally recognized as the premier conference in college athletics. While the other conferences have great collections of athletic programs, the SEC’s slogan stating “It Just Means More” reflects the reality of the landscape of college athletics. In a report from USA Today listing the top revenue generating athletic departments, 9 of the top 17 and 10 of the top 20 were SEC members. This influx of revenue allows these schools to invest heavily into their programs, which strengthens the chances of success on the field. Moreover, adding Texas (#1 on the USA Today report) and Oklahoma (#8) only widens the gap even more. A big reason why the SEC schools generate so much revenue is due to the media rights contracts the league is able to secure. Currently, CBS possesses the rights to SEC football games. The deal might’ve seemed fair when it was struck in 1996, but now has grown to be a tremendous bargain for CBS. Evidence for this comes in the fact that the SEC currently rakes in approximately $55 million per year until the deal expires in 2023. Beginning in 2024, ESPN and ABC will have the rights to 15 football games throughout the season along with 8 basketball contests. In the deal, the SEC is expected to receive around $300 million annually (This could increase with Texas/OU addition), nearly a 445% increase. This figure would blow away any of the other conferences by a long shot. Why does the SEC stand to have such an upper hand in television revenue? The answer may seem a lot simpler than what people make it out to be. In thinking about this issue, we need to focus on where the sources of revenue come from each party involved. In acquiring the media rights for games, networks make their money from selling advertisements to companies. Companies decide to invest in advertising because they believe many potential customers are watching these ads, which generates more sales. So in simple terms, it’s all about getting the most eyeballs on the product as possible. In today’s generation with all of the sources and forms of entertainment, people are watching less live television than ever before. In an era of recordings, Netflix, Hulu, etc., sports are one of the few things people watch as it's happening in today’s environment. So, what drives people to watch a particular sporting event, especially college sports, more than any other factor? Matchups. In the current state of college athletics, there are many games that don’t draw people in because they’re not that interesting. Whether it’s a non-conference matchup between a power program and a mid-major or a conference game between bottom feeders, outside of the fans of those particular teams, people aren’t tuning in. The evidence shows that viewers want matchups featuring two big brands pitted against each other. In the last two seasons, the most watched college football games in each of them reportedly featured the most popular brands in college sports. Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, and LSU appear up and down the list. The large majority were top 10 matchups with high postseason significance. In picturing an SEC that includes Texas and Oklahoma, the potential matchups we could see on a weekly basis figure to be amazing. In the other conferences, there are only one or two popular brands that generate a lot of interest from networks or providers. In the Big Ten, it’s Ohio State and Michigan. In the ACC, it’s Clemson and Florida State. In the Pac 12, it’s USC. Quite frankly, the networks are willing to invest in the entirety of those conferences just to get those brands. In taking the two bell cows out of the Big 12, the SEC stands to have a surplus of big brands which will supply matchups that will lead to high viewership. Any combination of Alabama-Texas, Oklahoma-LSU, Texas-Texas A&M, Oklahoma-Georgia to go along with the already popular matchups like Auburn-Alabama, Florida-Georgia, etc. would trump almost any matchup another league could offer with possibly the exception of Ohio State-Michigan. This is the upper hand the SEC has and will continue to have if the other conferences don’t act fast. People were blown away when they saw the SEC’s new deal with ESPN/ABC, but when you break it down to its roots, the deal makes perfect sense because that’s where many eyeballs will go on Saturdays in the Fall. Unless the other conferences find a way to expand or somehow pull Notre Dame out of independence to join their league, the SEC will likely continue to make more revenue which will produce more success on the field/court/pitch. All due respect to certain schools in the Big Ten, Pac 12, ACC, and what’s left of the Big 12, the games don’t draw anywhere near the national attention that SEC matchups do, especially in football. It will be interesting to see where things go from here, but it’s looking very profitable for the conference that claims, “It Just Means More.” You can find Brendan on Twitter @_bbell5

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) fired the opening salvo in what should be another transformative shift in college sports, at least in football and basketball. In the Universities of Texas and Oklahoma, the SEC scored a touchdown in bringing in two huge brands, fertile recruiting territories and traditions of success. They were the two biggest chips not already aligned into the four biggest conferences – the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC. It also solidified the state of Texas and its major TV markets as “SEC Country,” where football is king and basketball and baseball come in a distant second and third. The move, while glorious for the SEC, also destabilized the rest of college football as another round of conference realignment is inevitable. The Big 12 Conference is the biggest loser here as the conference tethers on the precipice of collapse. The Big 12 was already down to 10 schools when Colorado and Texas A&M bolted. Now, the remaining eight schools lack a clear identity, cache, and major media market power to make them a major selling point for anyone. Is the remaining Big 12 really more powerful than the Mountain West or American Athletic Conference from a business perspective to merit a “Power 5” designation? So, what are their options? With only eight schools left in the conference, the Big 12 would likely need to add a minimum of four new schools to stay relevant. It will likely make overtures to top brands in the neighboring Mountain West Conference and American Athletic Conference. Reportedly, the Pac-12 and Big 12 are also discussing a “partnership” – although it is not likely to be a merger. A Pac-12/Big 12 merger does not make much sense for the Pac-12, although the Big 12 would leap at the opportunity. None of the remaining Big 12 programs are cultural fits with the Pac-12. The Pac-12’s most recent converts – Utah and Colorado – are still not well integrated into the West Coast culture of the other ten schools. So, how well would these Heartland and Texas-based schools fit into the wine culture of the Pac-12? Secondly, the Pac-12 needs eyeballs to raise its overall clout. None of the remaining Big 12 programs bring significant markets to make it a no brainer for the Pac-12. Even Kansas, with its basketball success and the Kansas City market, will bring more logistical challenges that outweigh the benefits. Baylor and TCU, which also have recent success, don’t move the needle with their smaller fan bases, albeit it in the coveted Dallas-Fort Worth market. Will fans in Los Angeles or Seattle be excited that Iowa State is coming to play? Raiding the Mountain West Conference, likewise, is not the panacea for the Big 12. It does not have enough brands with sufficient strength in football, market size, or national brand recognition to move the needle for the Big 12. Boise State, which may be the strongest brand in the Mountain West, is not a valuable enough piece able to save the Big 12 alone or to keep it in the Power 5 discussion. UNLV has just been terrible in recent years despite being in probably the best market in the conference. Wyoming, Colorado State, and Utah State just don’t have enough value to make them attractive to the Big 12 outside of regional fits. For the Big 12, the Big Ten is the biggest threat right now. If the Big Ten sees value in any of the Big 12’s spare parts, it will further obliterate the Big 12. Though, is anyone left in the Big 12 attractive enough to the Big Ten that it would make overtures? If you look at the Big Ten’s growth strategy, it has always revolved around the Big Ten Network. Maryland and Rutgers were huge prizes because they brought in over 20 million people into Big Ten territory and, more importantly, cable subscriber fees. With a push to streaming now, it is easier to convert current subscribers than to find new ones. Many lamented that the Big Ten made a mistake in letting in a weak Rutgers athletic program, but even a mediocre Rutgers football team still gets solid football ratings in the key New York and Philadelphia markets. The remaining Big 12 schools just do not have the same market power that even a Rutgers had. Kansas arguably can help extend the Big Ten to the Kansas City market for basketball, but is that a big enough prize for the conference to take on a another traditionally weak football afterthought? Kansas does not really offer any other strong sports programs outside of men’s basketball, and for a conference that just sent nine teams to the NCAA tournament, does it really need another basketball franchise? Remember, adding more schools only splits the financial pie more for existing schools, so unless expansion makes the pie measurably bigger, is expansion really necessary? Kansas State would offer the Big Ten a better football tradition, but they don’t present a stronger enough academic profile to fit the Big Ten’s goals for recruiting schools that have the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) academic standing. Iowa State and Kansas are both AAU schools and are in states contiguous to the Big Ten footprint. Iowa State would provide regional rivalries with Iowa and Nebraska, but its closest media markets are already solidly in the Big Ten footprint, so it does not grow the pie. Would the Big Ten be willing to make an overture to a University of Colorado to pair with Kansas to win the Kansas City and Denver markets? With the Pac-12 floundering, the Buffaloes may seize such an opportunity to roam over to the Big Ten. For the Big Ten to make relevant market gains, their best bet may be to look East into New England, which is really an untapped market for college football. Would a school such as University of Connecticut help? If so, wouldn’t it have happened already? The most logical choice for the Big 12 would be to seek out a merger with the AAC instead. As the most vulnerable of the Power 5 conferences, the Big 12 would attract instance attention from the AAC leadership with its access to the College Football Playoff. A straight Big 12-AAC merger would provide 19 schools to create a “super-regional” football conference and also bring complementary pieces. Baylor, Houston and Texas Tech are probably the best football schools in the state outside of the Longhorns and Aggies. TCU and SMU would create an intriguing rivalry in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to make further inroads in the state of Texas (an important one for TV ratings). West Virginia can rekindle an old rivalry with a Cincinnati team that has been a perennial Top 25 team and flirted with an at large CFP bid last year. UCF is a prize by itself, but with South Florida as a natural rival too, it provides a revamped Big 12 Conference with access to the fertile Florida recruiting grounds in addition to Texas and the Rust Belt recruiting. In business parlance, an AAC-Big 12 merger could be seen as a “merger of equals.” The Big 12 can certainly make a run at just those schools, but there would be value to a straight on merger. Even, small school Tulsa would provide Oklahoma State with an instate rival. Add in Wichita State for basketball and even Kansas can get excited. Temple, Memphis, and Tulane also provide the new combined conference additional markets that can prove attractive. (Navy is also a football-only member of the AAC and brings a loyal base.) Of course, even the combined entity might look to shave off some of the weaker programs to get down to 16 schools. It could force some schools such as East Carolina, Tulane and possibly Temple out. Alternatively, it could look to add a few more schools to provide a platform for a 20-24 team conference. With a more strategic footprint, the Big 12 – or whatever it would then be called – would still pale in comparison to the Big Ten and SEC, but it could be a realistic competitor to the ACC or Pac-13 for that #3 spot. It would also provide a platform to innovate with more strategic scheduling options. One way or another, the Big 12 is at a crossroads. Its remaining schools are all looking for greener pastures right now, but the options are just not there overall. So, a Big 12-AAC merger may just be the strategy that makes the most sense for both to fortify their competitive side and balance sheets. Andrew Bondarowicz, Esq. is the principal of Bondarowicz & Associates, LLC and has been involved in business and legal affairs within the sports industry for over 15 years. He has also taught Sports Law at Rutgers Law School since 2012 and the M.S. in Global Sports Business Program since its inception.