Complaint Summary

Yay law!

The gist of this case is a fairly simple, albeit broad, allegation that the NCAA and Power Conferences operate as a price-fixing cartel. This would mean that the defendants would be in violation of the Sherman Act and liable for breaking federal antitrust laws that prohibit price-fixing and anti-competitive practices. The plaintiffs in the case are Division I football and basketball players who received full athletic scholarships to NCAA universities, as well as two classes of football and basketball players who are in comparable situations. Plaintiffs assert that defendants engaged in anti-competitive behavior by setting caps on the amount of compensation an athlete could receive for his services (full grant in aid) and took part in conspiracy, as there was not another reasonable forum where these athletes could provide said services for compensation. The defendants then make billions of dollars from the performances and related activities of the plaintiffs.

I see a ton of stories from this case, many of which have been explored by journalists in the past. One point particularly strikes me, though. The plaintiffs claim that NCAA price-fixing eliminates competitive behavior because schools cannot offer more than full grants in aid to their athletes, but these practices have not worked because certain conferences (SEC) still dominate in championship events. So I think a story might be getting the schools’ perspective. Do they want to eliminate NCAA regulations and have the freedom to offer recruits large sums of money to play? What about lesser-known Division I schools that may not have the prestige in football or basketball?

I also think it would be interesting to hear the Ivy League’s take on this whole controversy. What do its member schools use to recruit athletes when they are not able to offer athletic scholarships? How do NCAA regulations indirectly affect their programs?

Open records to get

Individual project:

Basic demographic info about Clarkston High School students
- How many nations are represented?
- How many students were not born in the United States?
- How many students are refugees? How many students have parents who were refugees?
Immigration policies, laws
Numerical data for how many refugees have resettled in Georgia, how does that compare to other states?
Census information for comprehensive look at the makeup of Clarkston

The information about the high school sounds like it would be easily obtained through school employees. When I talked with the principal last week, it sounded like this is information she would be able to get for me. For information about the city, I believe I could go through the city government to get these data and records.

Team project:

The forms/paperwork required to transfer in order to see what type information an athlete has to provide and if the reasoning for switching schools is included
Historical records of how many high school students transfer each year with information that includes the school they left and the school they moved to.
Information or paperwork from the decision-making process if there have ever been instances where a player is not granted eligibility at a new school
This is less so a record as it is a stat, but it would probably involve getting some historical data from GHSA. I’d like to see how the parity between the best teams and the worst teams and see if this is the result of an influx of transfers. For example, maybe a while ago a majority of teams fluctuated around 0.35-0.65 win proportions. But I wonder if the good teams have gotten better while the bad teams have gotten worse, which would show higher numbers of teams at the low end and the high end with fewer in the middle. Even if this is the case, it would be hard to attribute it to the increase in transfers who leave to find better teams.

I believe all of this information would be somewhat easily obtainable through GHSA. I’d assume that they keep a database of athletes who participate in sports, and they probably have the paperwork needed to transfer on file somewhere.

Records in need

Team:

How many players transferred over X amount of years
If any players transferred in or out of one school more so than another
If there was an influx of players into a particular school after a coaching change
Which schools have won the most championships in X amount of years and if they have had a significant number of transfers

We could probably acquire these records from GHSA. I’m sure that there must be a record kept of every transfer because you need to fill out forms to do so

Individual:

The number of men and women playing lacrosse in college
How many students playing college lacrosse are from Georgia
The percentage of lacrosse teams that are and that are not made up of in-state students

I’m not exactly sure how to come across this information. I don’t know if the NCAA keeps records of where players or from and I highly doubt many schools would, especially the smaller ones.

Jenkins case

The case goes over history of NCAA violations with antitrust laws, what schools can and cannot offer to students and recruits, specifics about awards/losing amateur status, it goes over over bowl games, and NFL/NBA eligibility to name a few.

It then goes into how these athletes could never truly be compensated monetarily for what their schools and the NCAA have benefitted from using their talents.

Jenkins is arguing that athletes should receive compensation for the work they put in and that the current athletic scholarship model hinders that.

As far as potential stories go, the fact that only a handful of schools from the power five conferences win national championships is a big one. Another avenue to explore is recruiting and how much of it is done under the table and how the NCAA could be better at policing it.

Another story, obviously, is the compensation of athletes, which I whole heartedly disagree with. While I see the point the case makes that some of these athletes will never have a professional career post-college, I still believe that in order to have an amateur status, college athletes should not be paid. If they were, anarchy would ensue.

It’s not fair if you pay a basketball player more than a runner. And then contracts would be negotiated, agents would get involved, and athletes would go from high school to the “corporate world” right away and more often than not, not know how to handle it. College prepares athletes for the pro-world.

Jenkins

The Jenkins, et al. v. NCAA case brings to light the issue of paying student-athletes. The case is in light of the rise in schools profiting off of student-athletes’ success such as video games, apparel, etc. It is an issue that is very prevalent in my life as a student-athlete but remains controversial when you consider what student-athletes are given to compensate their involvement.

Story ideas:

What/Who are the most bought college player apparel?
Amateur status and how much athletes are missing out on their winnings. EX: If an athlete wins Olympic trials and doesn’t take the earnings, how much are they missing out on?
Can non-revenue sport athletes survive at being professional with the income they get? vs. College degree?

Jenkins case and possible stories

The Jenkins, et al. v. NCAA case centers around the idea that the value a student-athlete brings to the school is capped at the amount of his or her scholarship, and the amount of money they bring into the school far exceeds this amount. Jenkins argues that this is illegal and violates federal antitrust laws. The complaint says that the NCAA and the Power Five conferences make billions of dollars off football and basketball players “who perform services” for the universities. This notion of whether players are exploited is the same as we discussed on Thursday in class. The complaint says that the universities do not sign contracts with the best interests of their student-athletes in mind and those athletes are unable to receive any portion of that revenue. Without the athletes, this revenue would not exist.

Possible stories:

Sport vs. service: How do we differentiate the two? Do college athletes perceive their athletic careers are furthering their involvement with sports or as providing a service in exchange for a scholarship?
How do the athletes of non-revenue sports feel about cases like this?
Breaking down the compensation athletes get in the form of tuition, cost-of-living stipends, housing, food, etc. This would help pinpoint how athletes are currently valued.
Any chances that more schools will try to unionize?
What percent of student-athletes give more value to their university than the university gives to them in the form of scholarship? It’s got to be tiny.
How would the culture of college sports change if athletes could be paid?

Some notes and links for Sept. 29

Link to [anonymous] roundtable survey

Wrap-up on stats (USAT story)

Stats (My quick-and-dirty analysis; see sheet 1 for original stats)

Courts:

NCAA v. Board of Regents of Oklahoma and Georgia
Lamar Dawson lawsuit.
1. What are the key claims Jackson is making?
2. Are there any laws or other cases you should know about to understand this case?
3. What stage is it in?
4. How would you report this story? Who would you want/need to talk to?

Open Records Laws

Ridiculous. I think that is the only way that I can describe the new open records laws in the state of Georgia.

This is a travesty for the public. Not only can you not give relevant information to the public and possibly shed light on wrongdoing in a timely manner, but now you face the risk of not being able to get information out when it’s still on the public’s minds. Ten days might have been okay, maybe even 20, but 90. That’s a 3,000 percent increase.

The institutions have entirely too much power now. Cover ups are easier and shady and deceptive acts are all too enticing. I am not saying institutions would do that, but the ability to do has increased. 90 days is a lot of time just for a response. And that is just for a response. They can take another 90 days just to actually give you the information. What part of this makes sense?

Oh, and it’s just supposedly to prevent institutions outside of Georgia from seeing who the Universities of Georgia are recruiting. Just go recruit the kid instead of worrying about other schools.

I think it is even more frightening to the degree that our politicians make back-alley deals with each other. This new open records rule was passed on the back of another bill. The amendment was quietly added to existing legislation designed to restrict public access to records about Georgia’s economic development projects.

First off, I don’t even know what that means, but I do know that this part of the bill was added after Kirby Smart visited the Georgia state capital. Sounds fishy right?

Open Records

Having been on the Georgia beat when this law first came into being and being at the press conferences and athletic facility when it was being discussed, this topic hits close to home.

My feelings on it really haven’t changed — that it is a way to directly impede the flow of information and shield from transparency. The claim specifically for Georgia is that this will help the team become more successful, but to me that is a fallacy. The policy worked just fine under Mark Richt, and no one really complained. The Fetty Wap incident certainly tipped the scales and shifted any thought at all if there it existed to go back to the old law.

What really matters is what this will mean for the near and forseeable future, and that is a scale that is tipped in the balance of athletic programs who will have an almost autonomy to act without accountability. Ninety days is a long time for information to be processed, and more importantly, for any potential damage control to be prepared for. To me, at a baseline level this is a “Too bad you can’t have it.” That is childish and petty, and it’s a shame that it has come to this, that programs feel as though they need a giant shield to protect their sanctity.

Georgia Open Records Laws

Working for an attorney, I send and facilitate open records requests at least once a week. The phrase “Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act…” is practically etched in my brain.

Usually, these companies and medical providers are fairly cooperative with these requests and produce the requested documents in a reasonable time. We also ask in our request that the documents be produced within 60 days of receiving the letter and make it clear that we are willing to pay any reasonable copy and transfer costs.

That being said, releasing an individual’s medical records to an attorney for a civil suit is completely different than a collegiate athletic department releasing it’s annual budget to a reporter. I think the new laws are extremely damaging to the public, because we generally have a short attention span. If a reporter cannot get the requested documents for three months, public outcry and/or interest in an important story may be chilled. I’m disappointed in these laws. I think they give institutions far too much time to clean up their acts and be deceptive with finances and other information.

From my experience, the best way to tackle these new laws would be to remain persistent. Continually send follow up requests within the three month period to ensure the school understands that the story is not going away. Unfortunately, being a pest is often the best way to get information in these situations.