Using Sex to Recruit?: The Boulder (CO) District Attorney has accused the University of Colorado of using sex parties to recruit star athletes, especially in football, the Denver Post reported Thursday. The allegation came in a deposition given this past October in a case involving a former Colorado student who says she was raped in 2001 at a party with players and recruits.Not surprisingly, the university is denying this claim, but the media and the governor are calling for a full investigation.Do top-tier athletic departments use sex to recruit...

Read More

IAAF Challenging US Decision on Sprinter: According to the LA Times, the IAAF, the global governing body for track and field, is expected to lodge a formal legal challenge against a decision made by USA Track & Field in 2000. The decision cleared sprinter Jerome Young to compete in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, despite the fact that he had tested positive one year earlier for a banned substance. Normally, such an affirmative test would result in a two-year ban, which would have made Young ineligible for the Games.The IAAF plans to take the case...

Read More

CART Bankruptcy Goes Before Judge: The assets of CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) and perhaps the future of open-wheel racing are in the hands of US Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Otte today. Judge Otte will be administering the auction of CART's assets between two main bidders: a group of current CART team owners intent on keeping the series alive, and IRL president Tony George, who wishes to shut it down. Under the law, Otte has a great deal of discretion, but he must ensure that his decisions are best for CART's creditors, employees, and...

Read More

'He Hate Me' Trademarked by Smart: Last night's SportsCenter included a feature on Rod Smart of the Carolina Panthers, who played one season in the XFL under the moniker 'He Hate Me' (click here for picture). This gained Smart enormous exposure, both during after the days of the XFL, including yesterday at Super Bowl Media Day. ESPN's Chris Mortenson asked Smart if he had trademarked 'He Hate Me' and Smart replied, "Yeah, it's all mine."I thought this was a joke until I visited the US Patent and Trademark Office website. It turns out that Smart...

Read More

Gay Marriage and Sports: The Atlanta-area Druid Hills Golf Club has found itself in a battle between state law, city ordinances, antidiscrimination laws and the right of a private club to freely set its own policies. The country club has retained a lawyer after a city panel found that it discriminated by not extending spousal benefits to the partners of its homosexual members. No lawsuit has been filed as of yet and the city has until mid-February to decide whether to conduct further investigation. The club released this statement last week.This...

Read More

Eminent Domain and the Brooklyn Nets: A strong wave of protest has arisen after Bruce Ratner purchased the New Jersey Nets and announced his plans to move the team to Brooklyn, building a new stadium in the Prospect Heights area. As Denis Hammill writes, the great majority of those protesting are the approximately 800 residents of this area that would lose their residences to eminent domain.Eminent domain is always a touchy policy, as it involves the most protected of all places, people's homes. However, the need for eminent domain is evident,...

Read More

More on Chargers Lawsuit: The city of San Diego has responded to the lawsuit filed in November by the NFL's Chargers, arguing that the team has not met the financial-hardship requirements needed to get out of its stadium lease, and thus, should not be allowed to shop themselves to other cities.The city has also sent letters to officials in Portland, Carson, Anaheim, Long Beach, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and the Anschutz Entertainment Group in Los Angeles, warning them that the Chargers are under lease at Qualcomm Stadium and that the city would...

Read More

No Super Bowl in Mexico: The Super Bowl will not be shown on terrestrial Mexican television for the first time since Super Bowl I, the Sports Business Daily (subscription required) reports. The NFL and the main Mexican networks, which were also unable to reach an agreement for a regular season contract, apparently got nowhere in negotiation sessions over the past few wee...

Read More

More on Georgia Student Case: The news coverage and public outrage over the Marcus Dixon case continues to grow. A group called "Act4Justice" has a "Save Marcus Dixon" website, which invites you to sign a petition and donate money to Dixon's legal fund. It also has a question and answer with the imprisoned man. You can also visit helpmarcus.com, which tells more about the case and asks for support. BET presents both sides of the case and then asks the reader to decide: Did the punishment fit the crime?All of this helps to highlight the incredible...

Read More

Knight Appeals Dismissal of Lawsuit: Former Indiana and current Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight is asking an Indiana Court of Appeals judge to reinstate his lawsuit against his former employer. Knight claims Indiana breached his employment agreement by failing to follow proper termination procedures.On a sidenote, Myles Brand is also named in the suit. At the time, he was the President of Indiana. He currently is the Commissioner of the NCAA.You can read about the initial dismissal he...

Read More

Where Did the NHL's Labor Problem Come From?: The Sports Business News has a very good summary of the rapidly changing labor conditions in the NHL that are leading towards a work stoppa...

Read More

What's In a Name?: Bruce Ratner completed his purchase of the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday and plans to move the team to Brooklyn no later than 2009. But will the team change its name? The N.Y. Post has an article mentioning that the New Jersey Sports Authority will ask the NBA to allow it to keep the name "New Jersey Nets." According to the Trademark Blog, though, the New Jersey Nets trademark is owned by New Jersey Basketball, LLC, and it is not certain what will happen to this entity following the sale.The Trademark Blog also has a listing...

Read More

More on Georgia Student Sex Case: Today the Georgia Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Marcus Dixon, the former Georgia high school athlete who was sentenced to ten years for sexual assault of a minor. The case, discussed in this earlier post, stems from an incident in which Dixon, who was 18, had sex with a girl three months shy of her 16th birthday. The girl claimed the incident was rape, a charge on which Dixon was acquitted. However, instead of being sentenced on statutory rape, which would have brought one year in prison, Dixon...

Read More

Baseball Arbitration on the Horizon: The Sports Business News has a report on the upcoming baseball arbitration cases, including a breakdown of the key players on each team that are up for arbitration.The Blue Jays avoided arbitration with Roy Halladay by signing him to a four-year deal on Thursd...

Read More

Mets Can Register Logo in Britain: The Britain Patent Office has ruled that the New York Mets can register their trademark in the United Kingdom, despite objections from the British Meteorological Office (the "Met Office"). The patent officials ruled that there was little chance of the British public confusing the two entiti...

Read More

Judge Closes Bryant Hearing: In response to requests made earlier this month, the judge in the Kobe Bryant case has decided to close this week's key hearing to the public. The hearing will decide whether the alleged victim in the sexual assault case has given up her medical privacy righ...

Read More

Update on McCourt's Bid to Buy Dodgers: Frank McCourt is meeting with MLB lawyers today to work more on the financing for his bid to buy the Dodgers. Both sides have said that the negotiations are not effected by Eli Broad's bid to buy the team should McCourt's plan fall though.Read more here and he...

Read More

More on Bloom: Many more writers have chimed in on Jeremy Bloom's decision to challenge the NCAA and accept skiing endorsements while continuing to play college football. See my earlier post. ESPN's Mark Kreidler thinks that Bloom has a losing case. The Boulder Daily Camera also thinks that Bloom will lose, but that his case will pave the way for NCAA reform.On the other side, Kevin Blackistone of the Dallas Morning News has an insightful column saying the NCAA should make an exception in this case. Bernie Lincicome calls the NCAA "a big bully"...

Read More

Bush Gives Anti-Drug Message in the State of the Union: In his State of the Union address, President Bush called upon leaders of professional sports leagues and teams to stop the use of performance-enhancing drugs by their athletes. As role models, Bush said, professional athletes must set examples that goals should be achieved through hard work, not by cheating.Update: More from Reuters, ESPN and the Sports Business Daily (subscription required).Major League Baseball has also backed the President's message. You can view Commissioner Selig's...

Read More

F1 Teams Theaten Not to Race in Europe: Owners of F1 racing teams have threatened not to run in European races unless they are exempted from new community-wide arrest warrants that could be used against them if a driver is killed on the track. The owners of Aryton Senna's team, a driver killed in the Monaco race in 1994, were acquitted of manslaughter in connection with the accident, but may face a new heari...

Read More

Bryant Case May Spark Reform: After a woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape had her name revealed in the media, leading to death threats and hate mail, a few Colorado legislators are considering proposing legislation that would tighten legal protection for people in similar situations. Lawmakers feel that the lack of extra protection could have a "chilling effect" on individuals coming forwa...

Read More

Details on NHL's Desired CBA: Larry Brooks of the New York Post exchanged emails with the NHL's CLO, Bill Daly, and now reports on what the NHL seeks in a new collective bargaining agreement. In summary, the league hopes to implement a "soft cap" of $31 million through incentives and luxury taxes, rather than a "hard cap" similar to the one in the NFL.You read more in the Sports Business Daily (subscription require...

Read More

Bloom to Confront NCAA Head-On: Jeremy Bloom, the University of Colorado wide receiver and Olympic freestyle skier, has decided to continue playing college football and accepting endorsements from his skiing, which is in direct violation of NCAA rules. Under the NCAA guidelines, an athlete may not accept endorsements, even if it is for a sport in which he does not compete collegiately. However, Bloom wishes to play college football as well as training for skiing, which requires endorsements to fund the expensive training. Bloom has filed suit...

Read More

Runner Challenging Drug Appeals Process: The New York Times has an article on Regina Jacobs, one of the nation's top female middle-distance runners, who has tested positive for THG, the banned designer steroid. Jacobs is challenging the process by which athletes can appeal the drug suspensions, saying it is biased against the accused athletes. An accused athlete receives an arbitration hearing in front of a three-member panel. One member is chosen by the athlete, one member by the anti-doping agency and one member selected by the American Arbitration...

Read More

Clarett Wants to Play for Ohio State: The AP is reporting the Maurice Clarett wants to play for Ohio State next season, even if he wins a lawsuit he has filed against the NFL seeking to become eligible for the draft this April. The running back was suspended for the 2003 season, but not from the university, for accepting improper benefits from a family friend and then lying to investigators. On Monday, Clarett plea bargained in the criminal case to a lesser charge to avoid serving any jail ti...

Read More

New Definition of 'Rivalry': The AP is reporting that Phillip Fulmer, the head football coach at the University of Tennessee, provided the NCAA with damaging information regarding their investigation into the University of Alabama three years ago. The evidence surfaced as part of a lawsuit in which two former Alabama coaches are suing the NCAA for falsely accusing them of committing numerous recruiting violations. The alleged violations led to a five-year probation punishment for the school's football program and criminal indictments against...

Read More

Free Agency in the WNBA: The Los Angeles Times has a report on the expected rise of free agency during this WNBA off-season. Last year, the impact of free agency was muted due to a labor dispute and last minute signing of the new collective bargaining agreeme...

Read More

Players File for Arbitration: Sixty-five players have filed for arbitration as the Major League Baseball deadline passed on Friday. The most notable names are Roy Halladay of the Blue Jays and Eric Gagne of the Dodgers, both of whom won the Cy Young this past year in their respective leagues, as well as Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols. The number of arbitration filings fell for the third straight year and was the lowest since 1999. If players and teams do not reach agreements, the hearings will be held in Februa...

Read More

Cavaliers File Suit Against Fratello: The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, via the Sports Business Daily, is reporting that the Cleveland Cavaliers have filed a lawsuit against former coach and TNT analyst Mike Fratello, claiming they should not have to pay him the full $3 million in deferred compensation owed for the 1999-2000 season. The team contends that "because he pursued other opportunities" and did not "devote full-time effort and attention, solely and exclusively, to his Cavaliers' coaching duties," they do not have to pay him the full amount...

Read More

Broncos Want Player's Bonus Returned: The NFL Management Council, on behalf of the Denver Broncos, has filed a grievance against defensive tackle Daryl Gardener seeking return of the $5 million signing bonus promised him in last year's free agent signing. The team wants the $3 million it paid Gardener last year returned and is refusing to pay the additional $2 million it owes the player this year, citing a clause in the contract that says the bonus must be refunded if conduct "detrimental to the team" occurs in the first year of the deal. In...

Read More

Freddy Adu and Child Labor Laws: In case you are curious (as I was), there apparently will be no problems with child labor laws for Major League Soccer and Freddy Adu, who was taken with the first-overall pick in today's MLS draft. The issue, surprisingly, has not been addressed in any stories about Adu, which may reflect the lack of interest either in the topic or in soccer generally. The Washington Post's Jason La Canfora did write about the issue in this chat session (scroll about 2/3 of the way down the page). In addition, not everyone...

Read More

Mets May Have Illegally Viewed Guerrero's Records: The New York Post, via Espn.com, is reporting that the Mets may have reviewed the medical records of Vladimir Guerrero, the free agent outfielder that ultimately signed with the Angels, during the team's negotiations with the player. If so, this would violate the league's collective bargaining agreement, which allows teams to speak with doctors, but not review medical records, without a player's consent. The exception to this is a trade situation, which free agency is not. The Player's Association...

Read More

Athlete Fights Sentencing Law: The Georgia Supreme Court will hear a case next week stemming from a sexual encounter between an eighteen-year old star athlete and a fifteen-year old female friend. The case centers on teenage sex and federal mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines, a subject so novel and newsworthy that the arguments will be broadcast over the Internet. You can read more he...

Read More

Bills Staying in Buffalo?: The Buffalo News has an article that discusses the future of the Bills, whose 15-year lease at Ralph Wilson Stadium allows the team to leave before next season. However, the team has a number of other contractual obligations to sponsors, many of them local, that would be violated by a move.This situation highlights the difficulty of small-market teams in an increasingly financial sports world. Outside of those few teams with incredible history and tradition (i.e., Green Bay Packers), the next era of professional sports...

Read More

More on the Super Bowl 'Ambush': As I discussed in this earlier post, a number of companies that are not official sponsors of the NFL or the Super Bowl will look to capitalize on the game through marketing in public areas around Reliant Stadium and other NFL sites. The Wall Street Journal (no link to article available) has an article today discussing this in greater detail, and focusing on companies such as Gateway and Papa John...

Read More

Reebok Looking at Licensing Deal with Baseball: The Boston Herald and Sports Business Daily report that Reebok is eyeing a potential licensing deal with Major League Baseball. Reebok already has deals with the NFL and NBA. Baseball currently has deals with a number of apparel manufacturers, including New Era and Nike.Update: Reebok and Major League Baseball have confirmed that talks are on-going, but stress that the proposed deal would be smaller and more focused than the manufacturer's deals with the NBA and NFL. Major League Baseball signed...

Read More

NFL Seeks to Expand Minority Rules: The NFL is considering extending its minority hiring guidelines, currently in place when a team seeks a new head coach, to include key front-office positions. However, some Diversity Committee members are worried about this extension, as front office hirings are often done in-house and without the broad searches that often accompany the hiring of a new head coach.I expressed my concerns with the actual effect the minority hiring guidelines would have in this earlier po...

Read More

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Twist Case: The Supreme Court yesterday denied cert in the case between "Spawn" comic book creator Todd McFarlane and former NHL player Tony Twist. Twist sued McFarlane for misappropriation of his name and right of publicity, arguing that the character Antonio (Tony Twist) Twistelli, which was based on Twist, hurt his image and cost him endorsement deals. A Missouri jury awarded $24.5 million in damages, but the amount was overturned by a Missouri court of appeals and the state's Supreme Court has ordered a new...

Read More

Do Bills' Assistants Have Jobs?: The NFL Coaches' Association has sent a letter to the Buffalo Bills seeking an immediate decision on the status of its assistant coaches. After head coach Gregg Williams was fired, no decision was made on the fate of his assistants for next season. Williams was hired by Joe Gibbs to be the new Redskins defensive coordinator and he wishes to bring certain assistants with him, but NFL rules allow teams to block the movement of assistants under contract. The Coache's Association has asked that the Bills either...

Read More

Williams Trial Begins: The trial of Jayson Williams, the former NBA player charged with the shooting death of his limo driver, begins today in New Jersey. Williams maintains the shooting was an accident, though several witnesses will testify against him as part of plea agreements related to tampering with evidence at the crime scene....

Read More

Conference Realignment on Hold: The NCAA realignment, which will affect the ACC, Big East and Conference USA, among others, will not take place this fall as originally hoped. The other conferences were unable to reach an agreement with C-USA, whose leaders were seeking a reported $10 million to move the shift up one ye...

Read More

Cubs Reach Deal with Rooftop Owners: The Chicago Cubs have reached a deal with owners of 11 of the 13 buildings on which there are rooftop seats overlooking Wrigley Field. The twenty-year agreement calls for the owners to give the team 17 percent of their revenues, which could be as much as $2 million per year.The Cubs sued the owners in December of 2002 for stealing the team's product, copyright infringement and unjust enrichment at the Cubs' expense. The lawsuit followed a failed attempt by the Cubs to expand the bleachers at Wrigley by 2000...

Read More

Update on Sale of Dodgers: In an update to an earlier post, the sale of the Dodgers to Frank McCourt is now expected to be approved by January 31. The Sports Business Journal (subscription required) reports that McCourt would borrow money that would cover the entire $430 million purchase price through a mix of team and private loans from sources such as the Bank of America, the MLB credit facility and News Corp. McCourt would teams play back the loans in the first few years by selling off some of his Boston real esta...

Read More

NHL Stoppage Could Doom Teams: NHL Execustive Bill Daly is uncertain that all thirty teams would survive a work stoppage, a factor that could impact the behind-the-scenes labor negotiatio...

Read More

NBA to Europe?: The Sports Business Daily (subscription required) is reporting that the NBA is working towards expanding into Europe, led by the former president of Madison Square Garden and a team of international investors.I wrote a paper on the feasibility of this move a few years ago. My elementary conclusions were that such an expansion would require 4-6 teams in Europe, so that teams could travel for a "European swing," much as they do a West Coast swing, and so that the Europe division could play each other more, reducing travel costs....

Read More

Patent Suit Filed Against ESPN: Also in Andrews this month, InternetAd Systems has filed a patent infringement suit against ESPN, Travelocity and the New York Times for alleged violations of four patents the company owns. The four patents are: No. 5,572,643 (Web Browser with Dynamic Display of Information Objects During Linking), No. 5,737,619 (World Wide Web Browser With Content Delivery Over an Idle Connection and Interstitial Content Display), No. 6,185,586 (Content Display During Idle Time as a User Waits for Information During an Internet...

Read More

Update on Stringer v. NFL: The widow of Korey Stringer, the Vikings tackle who died in 2001 from heat exhaustion at training camp, has filed an opposition to motion to dismiss in the Southern district of Ohio. The NFL claims that, due to the collective bargaining agreement, her complaint can only be resolved through arbitration. Stringer argues, however, that the CBA does not cover this situation, and thus, is not applicable. This month's Andrews Entertainment Industry Litigation Reporter has more. You can also read my earlier post about the...

Read More

Celebrity Phone List Published: In a move with numerous potential legal implications, an AP employee accidentally sent a list of 750 sports figures' home and cell phone numbers out over the wire earlier today. The AP quickly noticed the mistake and sent a "kill" message, but the list had already been published on the Internet. The names on the list include Hall of Famers, current stars, owners, members of the media and President Bu...

Read More

USC v. LSU for National Championship?: Gateway, the computer manufacturer, has offered LSU and USC $30 million in scholarships and computer equipment to play a National Championship game the weekend before the Super Bowl. As of yet, neither team has commented on the offer, but the NCAA quickly rejected the proposal. Not yet defeated, Gateway has called on the NCAA to vote on the proposal at its National Conventi...

Read More

Patriots on the Look-Out for Scalpers: The Boston Herald reports that the Patriots are monitoring e-Bay and other Internet sites, looking for season ticket holders that are re-selling their tickets for tomorrow's play-off game. The team has said that anyone caught scalping could forfeit their season tickets, forcing them to go to the back of the 50,000 person waitli...

Read More

Subpoenas Issued for Sports Websites: Via the Sports Business Daily (subscription required), the Justice Department has issued a number of subpoenas targeting, among others, sports information websites, as part of an investigation into Internet gambli...

Read More

Update on Playmakers: The Sports Business News has an article describing the on-going debate over whether or not to bring ESPN's Playmakers back for another season. You can also read my earlier post on the subje...

Read More

Compensation for Conference Moves: Andy Katz has an article about conference re-alignment and the $10 million payment to Conference USA that will make the whole thing possib...

Read More

More on Price v. Sports Illustrated: Law.com has an article discussing a judge's order that Sports Illustrated reveal its confidential sources that form the basis of former Alabama coach Mike Price's defamation suit against the magazine. The article draws a comparison between the SI case and the case of Richard Jewell, the man who was accused of the Olympic Park bombing and has been pursuing a libel suit against the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for seven years.You can read my earlier post about the SI case here. Law.com has articles about Jewell's...

Read More

Paying College Athletes: The Oakland Tribune has an article about California Senate Bill 193, which would mandate certain rights for student-athletes in California public universities, but also violate numerous NCAA policies.You can read more about SB 193, along with Nebraska Legislative Bill 688, which proposes to pay a stipend to college athletes, in my piece, "Payment for College Football Players in Nebraska," which will be published in the Harvard Journal on Legislation next mon...

Read More

The NFL "Trigger" for Relocation: The San-Diego Tribune discusses the highly complex formula of deciding when an NFL team may seek to relocate. Basically, the formula says a team can attempt to move when its costs for salaries and benefits are greater than 75 percent of the gross revenues of the average NFL team. But it is infinitely more complicated than th...

Read More

More on Rose: Jayson Stark has more on why Rose's plan to get reinstated to baseball has taken a turn for the worse. You can read more about the Rose admission he...

Read More

Legal Implications of the Gibbs Hiring: Joe Gibbs was hired yesterday to coach the Washington Redskins, a team he left in 1992. Since that time, Gibbs has become a very successful NASCAR owner and is the CEO of Joe Gibbs Racing. Gibbs has said he plans to continue owning the team, but this could possibly be affected by NFL rules limiting financial involvement in other sports properties. USA Today and the Washington Post have stories.This raises a very interesting legal question. How much can the NFL limit the ability of one of its owners to...

Read More

Former Baylor Player Sues Bliss: Former Baylor basketball player Chad Elsey has sued former coach Dave Bliss for $100,000, claiming that the coach broke a promise to help him get into law school and to pay for his tuition. According to Elsey, who is a student at the University of Tulsa law school and filed the suit on his own behalf, Bliss made the promise during a recruiting visit and said that he could get around the NCAA rules.The Dallas Morning News has mo...

Read More

Interesting Tidbit: This isn't legally-related but I found it interesting. The New York Times has an article today that details the content of the 3 hour and 43 minute Sugar Bowl played on Sunday. It turns out that viewers saw only 16 minutes and 28 seconds of live action football-- only 7 percent of the broadcast! The rest was consumed with on-screen graphics, replays, coaches shots, commercials, etc.Even worse, the Colts play-off game victory over Denver had only 12 minutes and 18 seconds of live football action. This makes TIVO seem really...

Read More

Sports and Zoning Law: Even zoning laws can intrude on sports. This article discusses a fight over the zoning of the land on which a golf course sits. Currently it is zoned as agricultural, but developers want to change the zoning to commercial so that the land can be re-developed. Thanks to How Appealing for the li...

Read More

PGA Media Fight Goes to 11th Circuit: The lawsuit against the PGA Tour concerning the reporting of real-time golf scores will be argued in the 11th Circuit on January 14. Morris Communications, which owns several newspapers, argues that the Tour violated anti-trust laws when it forced media outlets to delay the reporting of real-time scores in order to gain access the PGA's press center. Morris argues this was done so that the Tour's own website would have exclusivity in the reporting of real-time event scores.The district court judge threw out...

Read More

Arrington Signs Group Licensing Pact: The Sports Business Daily is reporting that Redskins linebacker Lavar Arrington has ended his holdout as the only player who refused to sign the NFL Player's Association Group Licensing Pact, an agreement which allows the NFLPA to make deals using his name, number, voice and image in licensed deals involving six or more NFL players. Arrington had previously filed lawsuits against Nike and adidas, asking that the companies cease selling Arrington jerseys, and against three trading card companies for producing...

Read More

Media Out in Bryant Hearing?: Prosecutors and an attorney for the accuser of Kobe Bryant have requested that a hearing detailing the accuser's medical history be closed to the media. Bryant's own attorneys have asked that a different hearing be closed to the media because the evidence introduced could prejudice their client at tri...

Read More

Richardson Seeks Dismissal of Counterclaim: Nolan Richardson, the former men's basketball coach at the University of Arkansas, has objected to a counterclaim filed by the University that states that Richardson violated the terms of the buy-out of his contract by filing his lawsuit against the University. Arkansas seeks either a dismissal of the lawsuit or a return of the $800,000 paid to Richardson as part of the agreeme...

Read More

Rose Admits to Betting on Baseball: Unless you have been living in a cave, you know that Pete Rose has a new book out admitting that he bet on baseball and on his own team, but denying that he ever bet against his own team.ESPN has an article here, including an assertion that Rose bet from the clubhouse.FindLaw has an article here.The New York Times has an editorial today calling the confession "lame."The Sports Business News has an article stating that Rose's confession should not be trusted.The fact is that Rose took 14 years to admit what everyone...

Read More

College Bands Drowned out by Marketers: The Wall Street Journal (no link available) has a very interesting article today about the increasing influence of in-game marketing promotions and the resulting impact on college pep bands. Many bands, including the Louisville band profiled, have had their in-game playing time cut in half to make way for free throw contests, on-screen ads and other promotional gimmicks that can cost as much as $15,000 per spot. Now, when the home team is in the midst of a comeback or the crowd is fired up, a timeout will...

Read More