Recently, college football has undergone several drastic changes, including, the start of the player compensation era, the loosening of transfer restrictions, the seemingly endless realignment of institutions, and much more. With each of these changes, decision makers are looking around wondering what to make of this new age college football and asking themselves who exactly... Continue Reading →
UCLA to the Big Ten? – Not so Fast..
Today, November 17, the University of California Board of Regents (“Board of Regents” or “Board”) will meet to discuss a variety of issues, including UCLA’s move to the Big Ten Conference.[1] Specifically, on June 30, 2022, UCLA suddenly announced its plan to leave the Pac-12 Conference and join the Big Ten Conference beginning in the... Continue Reading →
Jeff Bacon – Deputy Commissioner / Chief Operating Officer of the Mid-American Conference
Background Mr. Bacon began his legal career by pursuing a law degree at Akron University School of Law. Since the beginning, Mr. Bacon always knew that he wanted to work in college athletics. Initially, Mr. Bacon hoped to become a sports agent, as that was his first instinct when thinking about the intersection of sports... Continue Reading →
Montana State Senator Proposes an ESPN ‘College GameDay’ Bill
[1] Last week, Montana State Senator Ellie Boldman requested a bill be drafted with the intent of bringing ESPN’s pregame show “College GameDay” to Montana.[2] Ever since College GameDay premiered for Notre Dame-Florida State in 1993, the show has traveled across the US to different host schools each week during the college football season to... Continue Reading →
Protecting Youth Athletes in the NIL Era
In recent months, name, image, and likeness opportunities have quickly filtered down from the collegiate ranks to the high school and youth levels. To protect youth athletes in this space, Philadelphia Councilmember Isaiah Thomas recently introduced the “Philly NIL Youth Protection Act.”[1] The purpose of this ordinance is to establish provisions related to education and... Continue Reading →
The NCAA Goes To Court Over CTE
A massive case regarding CTE and NCAA football has gone to trial for only the second time, as the widow (Alana Gee) of former USC linebacker Matt Gee is suing the NCAA for wrongful death in Los Angeles Superior Court.[1] Gee was the fifth linebacker from the 1989 USC football team to die before the... Continue Reading →
The Carousel Continues to Spin
Just last week I wrote about the decisions by Nebraska and Arizona State to fire their head football coaches only a few weeks into the 2022 regular season.[1] Less than a few hours after that post went live, on September 26, 2022, another major college football coach was relieved of his duties. Specifically, Georgia Tech... Continue Reading →
PSU NIL Collective To Offer Player Disability Insurance
NIL has changed the landscape of college sports. While giving athletes the opportunity to profit from NIL while in school, there is also new opportunity in unconventional ways for athletes to be provided with financial backing and support. Most recently, an NIL collective at Penn State, called “We ARE…”, has created a model that... Continue Reading →
Coaching Carousel Continues Around and Around Again
This past winter, I wrote an article discussing the major college football coaching decisions during the 2021 season. See Is This The Product That Major College Football Truly Desires to Produce?[1] There, I discussed the domino effect that firing college coaches has, ultimately leading to coaches jumping ship for these now vacated and seemingly better... Continue Reading →
NIL= Not for International athLetes
College athletes across the country are rejoicing about the new NIL regulations finally put into place recently that allow them to profit off their own name, image, and likeness. While this change was long overdue for college athletes, not all athletes have been lucky enough to reap the benefits of NIL. International athletes have not... Continue Reading →