Friday, September 5, 2008

The Best Bargains in College Football

Winning in college football is one thing, but who's winning without breaking the bank on their coach's salary? Darren Everson of the Wall Street Journal compiled some interesting data on this question. Everson ranks the BCS teams that received votes in last season's final AP poll in order of how big a bargain their coaches were, based on an average of a coach's salary and the "cost per vote" (coach salary divided by the number of AP votes each team received). It should be noted that there are schools with very highly paid coaches that did not receive votes in the final AP poll, including Iowa and Notre Dame (both coaches with salaries in excess of $3M), and thus did not even make the list.

Oklahoma Thunder: Let the real Battle begin



There is battle going on in the NBA and the battleground involves the new NBA team, the Oklahoma Thunder.

The battle doesn't involve, sponsors or a rival club after the same player, the battle is for the heart and soul of any team, THE TEAM SONG.

On one side, you have a bunch of Aussies, who have never been to Oklahoma and their fist pumping song , ThunderStruck, a rock anthem, which can be used to get a crowd pumped up.

On the other, you have local boy and the biggest selling solo album artist in USA history, Garth Brooks, who cut the ribbon to the new stadium.

His song, The Thunder Rolls is always one of the highlights of his concerts.

Both songs are worthy, but the upper hand must be with Garth, hes Oklahoma born and bred, and with a few lyric changes, the song The Thunder Rolls, which is set in a thunderstorm, will have country fans and non country fans abuzz. I mean thats what the team was named after, a thunder storm.

So hopefully as the new season starts, the thunder will roll, the lightening will struck, the team will win and deep in the heart of the fans, the thunder rolls.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Wade is Innocent



The best player in the NRL today is innocent, the best player wont be avaiable for the Warriors against the eels, the best player got found guilty of a crime, when another player got off without a ban.

The best player cannot spit at someone from six feet away and have it land 3cm, near a touch judge. The best player will appeal, the best player though IMHO will still have to serve out a ban, the best player is gutted, the best player is a victim of a corrupt system, its just sad that the best player in the NRL plays for a team from New Zealand.

Its like in the mid 90's all over again and the NRL have bought back, Jagwat the elephant jockey. One can only hope the warriors can do the business in the last round without their best player.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Where did the best sports agents go to law school?

At Moneylaw, Louisville law dean Jim Chen discusses a profile of football agent Ben Dogra from today's New York Times. Dean Chen notes:
Scott Boras attended McGeorge School of Law. Theo Epstein went to law school at the University of San Diego. Dogra...attended SLU Law....[T]op plaintiffs' lawyers are not concentrated among the alumni ranks of elite schools, but rather come from schools all over. Successful sports agents and executives, one strongly suspects, follow a similar pattern. There are indeed many paths to success after law school, and the overwhelming majority of those paths have no connection to the 35 schools in the top twenty, let alone the three, fourteen, or eighteen truly "elite" schools that dominate gossip in legal academia
Additions? Tom Condon, Dogra's boss, went to Baltimore law (while playing in the NFL). Although Tellem went to Michigan, Picciotto (Octagon) to Penn and Rosenhaus to Duke (and Theo Epstein to Harvard College), it seems clear success in the highly competitive sports agent field is not limited to those with "elite" law school degrees.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

New Sports Law Scholarship

Recently published scholarship includes:
Phillip C. Blackman, Student Article, The NCAA’s academic performance program: academic reform or academic racism?, 15 UCLA ENTERTAINMENT LAW REVIEW 225 (2008)

Deborah L. Brake and Verna L. Williams, The Heart of the Game: putting race and educational equity at the center of Title IX. 7 VIRGINIA SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL 199 (2008)

Deborah L. Brake, The invisible pregnant athlete and the promise of Title IX, 31 HARVARD JOURNAL OF LAW & GENDER 323 (2008)

Jacquelyn Bridgeman, The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat: what sports tell us about achieving equality in America, 7 VIRGINIA SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL 248 (2008)

J. Bradley Clair, Note, Why federal preemption is necessary to create uniform professional boxer safety standards, 73 BROOKLYN LAW REVIEW 1173 (2008)

Timothy Davis, Race and sports in America: an historical overview, 7 VIRGINIA SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL 291(2008)

Ryan T. Dryer, Comment, Beyond the box score: a look at collective bargaining agreements in professional sports and their effect on competition, 2008 JOURNAL OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION 267

N. Jeremi Duru, The Fritz Pollard alliance, the Rooney rule, and the quest to “level the playing field” in the National Football League, 7 VIRGINIA SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL 179-197 (2008).

Homenda, Katarzyna, Note, The court is a fan of fans: Johnston v. Tampa Sports Authority correctly refused to extend the special needs doctrine to pat-downs at Raymond James Stadium, 57 DEPAUL LAW REVIEW 755 (2008)

Lexie Kuznick, Megan Ryan and Diane L. Rosenfeld, Changing Social Norms? Title IX and Legal Activism: comments from the Spring 2007 Harvard Journal of Law & Gender Conference, 31 HARVARD JOURNAL OF LAW & GENDER 367 (2008)

Tyler McCormick Love, Note, Throwing the flag on copyright warnings: how professional sports organizations systematically overstate copyright protection, 15 JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW 369 (2008)

Brian Mahler, Note, Kick me out of the ballgame: the Boston Red Sox, the BRA, and the taking of Yawkey Way, 42 NEW ENGLAND LAW REVIEW 549 (2008)

Hey Telfer, It's time to retire



It is time for long serving Journalist Brendon Telfer to retire. For the last few years, he has spent his time misleading the public. On Tuesday's morning show, he said "Rugby is too complex for America" and suggested that maybe Rugby Sevens will be best suited for the American audience.

He was suggesting that the American sporting public might not be bright enough to follow the game, well he is either sadly mistaken, or he is trying to appeal to the anti Americans in New Zealand society by lying.

You see Americans follow a game that makes Rugby union looks like snake and ladders by comparison, I talk of American Football.

This sport has more rules than cricket, and the people who follow the game are students of it, debates rage all over the country, over the credibility of each teams playbook, The defensive alone might have to memorize 200 different plays for each game, and the sporting public of the USA would be able to tell you, what plays work better.

For Telfer to suggest that Americans wouldn't understand a complex game, borders on being bigoted. He really has to go for misinforming the public once again.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Prison Break is Back



Prison Break is back. My predictions for the upcoming season.

Tbag will get his just desserts and I don't mean an ice cream, he will meet an untimely death in a horrible way.

Sarah will find her head, she lost it in season three.

Sarah will marry Michael.

Lincoln will be murdered, but his son will survive, as well as Lincoln's girlfriend.

Scure will save the day somehow.

Bellick will end up getting some, and turn good.

Mahone will just turn good.

The company will be bought down in a very bloody way.

The basketball kid will make the NBA!!!!