By Devin Tarwater
The new Sports Law and Business program at Arizona State University hosted its first annual conference on sports law and business last week at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.
The program, a joint effort between the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law and W.P. Carey School of Business, started in the fall of 2014 under the guidance of program director Rodney Smith and associate director Michael Mokwa, professors at the law school and the business school, respectively.
The conference was entitled: “The Sports Industry in 2025: Regulatory, Revenue and Reputational Issues in the Future of Intercollegiate and Professional Athletics.” The conference sparked discussion on the major issues in the sports industry today, what can be done to resolve those issues, and where the sports industry will stand on those issues in the near future. Since the issues in intercollegiate sports often differ from the issues in professional sports, the conference dedicated one day for a discussion on intercollegiate sports and one day for a discussion on professional sports.
Day one of the conference focused on intercollegiate athletics. It featured distinguished panelists and speakers, including:
Scott Bearby, General Counsel at the NCAA;
Carl Peterson, Chairman of USA Football & former CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs;;
Oliver Luck, Executive Vice President for Regulatory Affairs at the NCAA;
Jo Potuto, Professor & Faculty Athletics Representative at the University of Nebraska;
Matt Hanson, Director of Legislative & Eligibility Services at the NAIA;
Rocky Harris, Chief of Staff at Arizona State University Athletics;
Steve Webb, Executive Director Athletics Compliance at Arizona State University Athletics;
Dan Rascher, President of SportsEconomics LLC;
Robert Carey, Partner & Executive Committee Member at Hagens Berman;
Stephen Ross, Director of the Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy, and Research;
Donna Lopiano, President & Founder of Sports Management Resources; and
Wayne Embry, Senior Basketball Advisor for the Toronto Raptors.
The first panel on day one focused on issues in intercollegiate athletics from the associational perspective. Bearby, Potuto, and Hanson discussed the current threat to the grant-in-aid structure in intercollegiate athletics. Bearby opined that the disintegration of the current grant-in-aid structure would cause many changes in intercollegiate athletics and “the number of dominoes that [would] fall are spectacular.” Specifically, he believed that the protections in Title IV and the ideal learning opportunities for student-athletes would crumble without the current grant-in-aid structure. However, Bearby believed that the grant-in-aid structure will prevail regardless of the talks about its termination.
The second panel focused on the institutional and youth perspectives on issues in amateur sports. Peterson discussed the impact concussion awareness is having on youth football participation. He stated that parents are more wary of permitting their children to participate in football at a young age due to the increased awareness of the long-term effects that result from concussions. This awareness is causing the decrease in youth football participation. Harris and Webb discussed whether institutions adequately prepare their student-athletes for a career post-graduation. They admitted that most college athletes don’t play the game with the mind frame of just having fun; they play the game with a professional sports career in mind. However, the reality is that only a very small percentage of college athletes actually move on to a professional sports career. This leaves several student-athletes with dreams shattered and with little hope for satisfying career paths. The panel reminded conference participants of the 2013 killing of a former ASU football player that happened while he was working as a bouncer at a local club. This unfortunate event sparked the question as to whether universities are adequately preparing student-athletes for careers after college football. Harris emphasized that Arizona State University’s Athletics’ Department’s core mission is to prepare their student-athletes for professional careers outside of sports.
Luck, the keynote speaker on day one of the conference, stated that intercollegiate athletics are in a really good place. He focused on all the good that is happening, but he also acknowledged that there is room for improvement. Luck described intercollegiate athletics as being composed of two pillars: (1) the pillar of education; and (2) the pillar of amateurism, both of which differentiate intercollegiate athletics from professional athletics. He emphasized that quality education is the most important thing for the thousands of student-athletes currently participating in intercollegiate athletics. Luck expressed that these two pillars are what draw American consumers to intercollegiate athletics, and without the pillars, the intercollegiate athletics enterprise would not survive. Luck concluded that amateurism, not professionalism, fits the intercollegiate system.
