This week we studied law as it pertains to intercollegiate athletics. It was a much more interesting class than I had imagined. I was not terribly interested in the specific types of law and descriptions of specific terms; However, I was very intrigued by the case studies. We took a look into some crucial lawsuits between athletes, higher education, the NCAA, professional sports, and private citizens. John Morris was a fine instructor and really made the calls fun and interesting.
Studying situations that we may come across in our careers as leaders in intercollegiate athletics is extremely beneficial to the overall value of this degree. In the case that we studied, and wrote about, in assignment #3 (in-class), we confronted a women’s basketball team that had issues with a National Letter of Intent. A coach brought in a recruiting class, and then the coach was fired and went to a rival school. One of the girls that signed wanted to transfer to the coach’s new school. The debate, and corresponding writing assignment, was whether or not we would release the girl from her NLI obligation and let her play for the coach she was recruited by.
The debate was well debated on both sides and reminded us that there is no perfect solution to any one problem. There are several different ways to look at every decision we will be faced with and it is important to get feedback and input from your colleagues. This takes me back to our class on fierce conversations, and specifically the “beach ball conversations”. These are group discussions where several different people contribute ideas to come to a solid conclusion or decision on a topic. This can be valuable in making decision that can affect your university or a student-athlete for many years.
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