- Age Regulations in the NBA and NFL
As I’ve mentioned before, I think it would be interesting to look into the long term impacts of draft eligibility rules regarding age. More than 10 years after the NBA adopted the “one and done” rule, it would be interesting to take a broad look at the players who left college early and how their careers turned out. The same holds true for football.
2. Bilateral Advantage
One of the topics I’ve come across while studying for the Paralympics is the idea of “bilateral advantage.” This is the theory that double-amputee athletes, like Oscar Pistorius, have an athletic advantage over single-amputees and able-bodied athletes. I’m hoping to dig deeper into this topic in Rio.
3. Athlete Dismissal
“Off the field issues” and program dismissals have always been points of contention in college sports. Many coaches and athletic directors have been scrutinized as being too lax on athletes who get into legal trouble or otherwise violate conduct policies. Others are known to dismiss athletes without a second thought. Still, other programs have reputations for taking on athletes with “troubled” pasts at other schools. I’d love to look into this.
4. NCAA Regulations and “Likeness”
Keeping with my interest in law, the NCAA’s monopoly over college athletes is a hot topic. I would like to look into the NCAA’s policies regarding athletes and both sides of the argument about paying athletes and the use of their likeness. I think this is a good opportunity to look into big-time schools’ compliance programs and notable punishments.
5. Title IX in the SEC
Our discussion about the equestrian team sparked my interest in how other big football programs, in the SEC and across the country, balance their men’s programs to satisfy Title IX requirements. To me, the idea of such a massive equestrian team to ensure UGA football can continue is a bit crazy but very creative. I’m sure other schools have come up with other solutions and this would be a good opportunity to look into this and revisit the idea of Title IX to see if current athletes believe they are being treated fairly.
6. Liability of teams and personnel for injuries
One more just for kicks. An important legal debate in sports is the liability of teams and coaches – let’s say at the college level – for injuries sustained by players. Hundreds of civil suits have been filed against athletic departments and coaches, as players and their families have alleged negligence that resulted in injury. This begs the question, what are the obligations of a team/organization/coaching staff to protect players from injury? This could also be extended to mental health.
Hi Emily,
In terms of Title IX, there are a lot of other teams that balance out football at UGA besides equestrian. While yes, they are a huge factor, it is also one of the reasons that we are unable to have a men’s soccer team. Additionally, the women’s cross country team is extremely large for a sport where only five athletes actually score and (usually) only seven athletes race.
In terms of liability, this is an interesting topic. One of the UGA women’s swimmers, Courtney Weaver, actually just quit after her sophomore year but got a scholarship from the SEC for a medical dismissal for anxiety. More and more athletes are coming out about mental health issues and it begs the question whether or not college athletic departments should bring on more resources for athletes struggling with mental health.
As for physical health, there are several athletes I know that choose not to tell their coach about an injury so that they can compete. Everything you learn about your sport growing up tells you to immediately care for your injury, so that kind of goes against human nature. At what point does the responsibility become the coaches if that athletes chooses not to say anything?
Title IX in the SEC would be a great story. With the emergence of sports like Lacrosse and beach volleyball for women it would be great to dive into. The SEC is also interesting cause where these sports may be pretty natural one place, it wouldn’t be others. Also, looking into the Equestrian thing would be great cause it’s on the downward spiral after schools like Kentucky and Louisville were assumed to add it and never did.
You want law, you got law. You’ve identified about three potential issues here–civil rights (Title IX), torts and IP (fair use), and liability. The Paralympic issue is a really interesting sciency one and doesn’t always involve bilateral disability. There’s no way Jarryd Wallace would be running as fast on two biological legs as he does on one biological and one prosthetic. Any of these could be really engaging.