Sports Law Links

Each week The Sports Esquires keep track of the sports law headlines so you don’t have to.  This week’s edition features all four major sports, the NCAA, sports gambling, and more on the FIFA scandal.

NCAA

• Former University of Illinois female basketball players have sued the university alleging a racially hostile environment. The complaint is here.  David Haugh: Illinois must clean up its mess.
• The price war heats up over college athlete stipends.
• The settlement process has begun for college athletes featured in EA’s NCAA video games.
• NCAA seeks to define academic assistance as an impermissible benefit in an attempt to close the barn doors after the horse has bolted.
• Jon Solomon goes inside the NCAA, looking at legal fees and salary increases.

MLB

• MLB scouts have filed a minimum wage antitrust lawsuit against the league. Read the complaint here.
• The Cardinals have fired their scouting director as the hacking investigation continues. Federal investigators have recommended charges be brought against at least one employee.
• Nathaniel Grow recaps MLB’s opposition to San Jose’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
• The plaintiffs in the minor league wage lawsuit have filed their opposition to MLB’s motion to dismiss.
• The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the bond issuance plan to build the new Atlanta Braves’ baseball stadium.
• The latest Pete Rose news likely won’t affect MLB’s sports betting
• The Yankees and Alex Rodriguez have agreed to donate his disputed $6 million bonus.

NFL

• A look at Tom Brady’s chances should he file a defamation suit against the NFL.
• Judge refuses to overturn Aaron Hernandez’s murder conviction.
• Drones at the intersection of NFL practices and aircraft law.
• Law professor fights subsidies for new Rams stadium.
• Andrew Sensi put together a timeline of the Redskins trademark battle.
• Brandon Spikes pleads guilty to hit and run crash.
• Troy Vincent’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

Sports Gambling and Fantasy Sports

• Everything you need to know about the pending New Jersey sports gambling decision. Daniel Wallach explains why statutory interpretation is key to the decision.
• The NFL and its complicated relationship with daily fantasy sports.
• What’s in a name? Why “Fantasy Sports Book” could prove troublesome for the daily fantasy sports industry.
• Daily fantasy sports need innovation and legal clarity to continue to grow.

NHL

• Judge orders Glendale to pay the Coyotes nearly $4 million in the middle of an ongoing lease dispute.
• Eric Macramalla looks at the Kings’ termination of Mike Richards’s contract.
• Kings’ Slava Voynov pleads no contest in domestic violence case. Teddy Chadwick looks at Voynov’s immigration issues.
• NHL players have reached a settlement with the state of Tennessee over its jock tax.

NBA

• NBA free agency is here and the looming cap jump has resulted in $1.4 billion given out in salary on the first day. So far more than $2 billion in contracts have been agreed to in principle.
• The tax law and financial factors behind NBA free agency contract decisions.
• The shifting landscape of the NBA Draft: why players detour around the NCAA.

Best of the Rest

• Four things the FIFA scandal tells us about international criminal law. The U.S. has filed extradition requests for seven arrested FIFA officials.  Sepp Blatter won’t travel for fear of being arrested.
• Nearly $3 million of Phil Mickelson’s money has been tied to an extensive money laundering and gambling investigation.
• Boxing promoter Bob Arum has filed an antitrust suit against Al Haymon and financial backers.
• Floyd Mayweather may be stripped of the title belt he won in his fight against Manny Pacquiao.
• New Olympic Charter changes will give more influence to International Sports Federations.
• Nathaniel Grow’s book on the origin of baseball’s antitrust exemption now available as an eBook for $3.