By Robert J. Romano, JD, LLM, St. John’s University, Senior Writer
During the 1980s, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in recognizing that there was a growing number of complex and involved sports disputes, sought a specialized tribunal that would be equipped to handle legal issues specific to the world of sport. This, together with the shift at the time from amateur to professionalized sport around the world, led to the creation in 1984 of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).[1] The primary goal when creating CAS was to provide a final and binding arbitration court for sports-related disputes, including those involving athletes, sports federations, and Olympic organizers.
What was not seemingly contemplated when it came to CAS’s ability to handle sport related legal issues was this concept in American sports known as college athletics and with that disputes that arise concerning its governing body – the NCAA, the colleges and universities that field the various teams, and the student-athletes themselves. All in all, it was then understandable because college athletics was up until recently considered “amateur sport” and the student-athletes had limited legal rights or recourse as they were subject to the unilaterally adopted rules and regulations as promulgated by the NCAA itself.
Fast forward to the 2020s, however, after federal courts in the O’Bannon and Alston matters fundamentally overturned the NCAA’s longstanding amateurism model and the recent House settlement resulting in monumental changes when it comes to compensation opportunities for student-athletes, college athletics in the United States can no longer be considered amateur – but professional, and with that all legal concerns, issues, and disputes that go along with such a transformation.[2]
As result of this prodigious shift, similarly the CAS arbitration system that began in Europe, a new and neutral place to resolve legal disputes involving the inimitable college sport system here in the United States has been created – The Forum of Arbitration and Independent Resolutions (FAIR Sports). Unlike the American Arbitration Association (AAA) or the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS), FAIR Sports is industry specific, with its stated objective being “to foster and promote independent dispute resolution amongst college sport stakeholders.” FAIR Sports purpose, therefore, is to help resolve issues regarding athletic scholarships, agreements between a college athlete and a school’s collective, agreements between college athletes and their agents, NIL contracts, and all other third-party stakeholders that have business within the college sport industry.
FAIR Sports’ leadership, which includes Tye Gonser, Oliver Luck, Jayma Meyer, Tim Nevius, Nneka Ogwumike, Ken Shropshire, Jack Swarbrick, and Tara Vanderveer, combine decades of experience from various backgrounds within the college sport world. The leadership team understands how college sport has grown and transitioned over the last 20 years, and includes former college athletic directors, sport attorneys, sport professors, athletes and coaches, and other NCAA officials – all with an eye towards how college sport will evolve over the coming years, according to Nevius, who is the co-founder and CEO of the entity. Nevius has gone from NCAA athlete to NCAA investigator and college sports lawyer.
So, how does the process work? Parties by agreement, or in accordance with a previously contracted dispute resolution clause (more about that later), after paying an administrative fee to initiate a case, can submit their dispute to FAIR Sports to be heard by one of its independent arbitrators/neutrals. Typically, the costs associated with retaining the arbitrator, who – by the way are highly experienced when it comes to sport legal disputes, are shared by all parties involved. After submission, cases are heard virtually (unless parties agree otherwise) and governed by FAIR’s specific set of rules which includes an expedited discovery calendar and opportunities for mediation and pre-arbitration settlement conferences, all designed to be confidential and to address any and all issues quickly and fairly. Like the CAS arbitration framework, FAIR Sport proceedings are designed to be faster and more affordable as opposed to parties utilizing a more traditional court system.
To learn more about how a college, university or any other third party with business involving the college sport industry can include a tailored dispute resolution clause into its contracts and/or other legal document that names FAIR Sports as the exclusive arbiter, please contact FAIR Sports through its website fairsports.org.
[1] The Court of Arbitration for Sport: https://www.tas-cas.org/en/general-information/index/
[2] O’Bannon v. NCAA is 802 F.3d 1049 (9th Cir. 2015), NCAA v. Alston is 141 S. Ct. 2141 (2021) and 545 F. Supp. 3d 804 (N.D. Cal. 2021).
