sports
Courting Fair Play: The Future of the NCAA’s Role in College Sports Governance
Feb. 27, 2024—By Dominic Keilty In the wake of recent judicial rulings against the NCAA, its role in the future governance of college sports is murkier than ever. With no current legislative exemptions for the NCAA, the emerging recognition of a college athlete labor market casts part the organization’s traditional role in doubt. The NCAA’s 2021 decision...
Game-Changer: Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers Move Sparks Luxury Tax Reform Talks
Jan. 26, 2024—By Hunter Berry Shohei Ohtani is, without doubt, this generation’s Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson. The 29-year-old has made waves not only throughout the United States, but the world, for a feat few in baseball can achieve at the professional level: serving as a two-way player with the ability to excel as both a pitcher...
Breaking Cultural and Financial Barriers in Olympic Sports
Jan. 18, 2024—Maureen A. Weston | 26 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 347 (2024) Nelson Mandela has said that “[s]port has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does . . . . It is more powerful than...
Tackling Bias in Sport: Recognizing the Impact of Identities
Jan. 18, 2024—Meg Hancock | 26 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 329 (2024) Studies suggest participation in organized sports—from childhood to adulthood—promotes positive physical, social, emotional, and intellectual benefits that impact individuals and their communities over a lifetime. Sports participation in early childhood and adolescence also leads to higher self-esteem, greater wage-earning potential, lower health costs,...
Beyond NIL
Jan. 18, 2024—William W. Berry III | 26 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 275 (2024) The name, image, and likeness (NIL) changes and shifting landscape obscure more existential threats to the student-athlete model on the horizon. The television money that Power Five conference teams receive still comprises much of the budget of athletic departments. The football...
Name, Image, and Likeness: How the NIL Has Rapidly Encroached Upon High School Sports
Nov. 22, 2023—In this new post by Matthew Lybeck ('25), read about how recent changes to the National Collegiate Athletic Association's name, image, and likeliness profitability rules have allowed opportunities to quickly spread from college athletics to high school athletics in many states, and the impact new rules and laws may have on high school athletics.
Artificial Intelligence Referees: Offsides and Out of Bounds
Nov. 13, 2023—This post by Benjamin Dias ('25) discusses how technological improvement has given birth to greater social scrutiny of referee performance. Beyond replay review, Sports Governing Organizations like the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball have implemented various camera angles, dedicated replay officers, and trained rules analysts to ensure each game complies with official rulebooks. Still, errors occur. While sports fans and players alike call upon SGOs to replace core referee functions with Artificial Intelligence to improve officiating accuracy, this post cautions against rapid integration out of concern for three distinct categories of legal ramifications.
The Rise and Fall of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act: How Congress Could Save the “Sport of Kings”
Jul. 28, 2023—Lucy McAfee | 25 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 783 (2023). The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) has undergone several unsuccessful changes over the past decade in an effort to change how horseracing is regulated. After Congress successfully passed HISA in 2020, several lawsuits were filed to stop HISA from going into effect....