Footnoting the New Jersey Sports Wagering Litigation

I recently had the chance to read the latest round of briefs filed in the on-going New Jersey sports wagering lawsuit.  The case is now at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, with oral arguments scheduled for June 26.  Griffin Finan of Ifrah Law penned a comprehensive post pertaining to the DOJ's brief filed on the side of the plaintiff quintet (NCAA, NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB).  New Jersey filed a reply brief on June 14 and I was struck by the content of the footnotes contained therein, as lead counsel Ted Olson (a former Solicitor General) made a number of thought-provoking points.  I have long been fascinated with the use of footnotes in Supreme Court opinions and academic writing generally.

After losing at the District Court level, New Jersey's appeal is premised on three arguments: (i) the sports leagues lack standing; (ii) PASPA violates the 10th Amendment; and (iii) PASPA violates the principle of equal sovereignty. In support of the state's standing argument, the brief includes four footnotes.  In sequential order:

Footnote #1 addresses the recurring issue of actual injury (from sports wagering) and injury stemming from the perception of game-fixing.  It posits that "[a]ny perceptions of game-fixing - no less than the instances of game fixing themselves - are caused by the Leagues' own agents."

Footnote #2 flags the issue of the sports league plaintiffs holding events in Las Vegas, but not having pro franchises in the city.

Footnote #3 covers the "Sports Wagering Law's carve-out for New Jersey collegiate teams" and posits that "[t]hat exemption was included at the request of the NCAA." The emphasis in bold/italics is contained in the brief.  It is not my own.  Curiously, this footnote appears to be at odds with a previous report pertaining to the matter.  I am unable to reconcile footnote #3 with the the statement made in the article linked in the previous sentence.  As such, I am curious if the sports league plaintiffs and/or the DOJ raise this issue during oral arguments or a subsequent pleading.

Footnote #4 gets to the issue of whether PASPA confers any intellectual property right and cites the recent SCOTUS decision in Already, LLC v. Nike, 133 S. Ct. 721 (2013).

I look forward to reading the transcript of the upcoming oral argument and seeing how many of these footnoted issues are covered.  My sense is that the over-under is 2.5.

Yesterday's Class Certification Hearing in O'Bannon

Steve Berkowitz of USA Today has an article this morning concerning yesterday's hearing before Judge Claudia Wilken in the O'Bannon lawsuit.  Here is an excerpt:

The [defendants'] lawyers also contended that various state laws and legal precedents say that athletes have no property rights for appearing in live, unscripted events – and thus have nothing that the NCAA or the schools are infringing upon when it comes to game telecasts and re-broadcasts.

That led Curtner to state that when it comes to television agreements, schools and conferences were simply "selling access" to their venues.

Wilken appeared to chuckle at the assertion, and after the hearing, Hausfeld attacked it, calling it a "significant admission or acknowledgement" by the NCAA.

"I don't know about any of the broadcasters, but I'm not sure that anyone in their right licensing mind would pay billions of dollars for an empty stadium or an empty basketball court," Hausfeld said. "You're paying for the players, you're paying for the quality of the teams that perform on those courts and in those stadiums. You want and many of the contracts require the conveyance of the name, image and likeness rights of the athletes. So I think the court understood there was a bit of foolishness in that representation." 

Because college athletes have never legally asserted their right to a portion of the live broadcast licensing revenue, the NCAA, conferences and universities decide on their own that they are entitled to keep 100% of the billions in annual revenues generated by simply selling to the networks access to their stadiums.

There are some who question how it is that college athletes could possibly have a legal claim or right to the broadcast licensing revenue.  Perhaps the better question is, what is it that gives the NCAA, conferences and universities the exclusive right to it?   The network is the "author" (and therefore owner) of the broadcast under copyright law.  The NCAA, conferences and universities receive from the networks billions of dollars and an assignment of the copyright in exchange for stadium access, and in the process they have shut the athletes out by not giving them a seat at the negotiating table with the networks.  This lawsuit can be viewed as requesting or demanding a seat at the table.  So what law or case precedent gives the schools the right to exclude them?  What law or case precedent gives the schools the exclusive right to broadcast licensing revenue?  Hint: it cannot be analogized to the professional sports leagues.     

O'Bannon v. NCAA: Class Certification Hearing

I have a new article for SI.com on tomorrow's class certification that breaks down what to expect and also features research on Judge Claudia Wilken.  Here is an excerpt:

The 63-year-old Wilken is no stranger to this case, sports law or class certification hearings. She denied the NCAA and EA's attempts to have O'Bannon's case dismissed, though she did reject several of O'Bannon's claims in the process. On balance, her pretrial rulings have favored O'Bannon.

Wilken also presided over a recent settlement in Pecover v. EA. In that class action, consumers sued over EA's exclusive licensing deals with the NFL, NCAA and the Arena Football League. Those deals prevented rival video game publishers from releasing their own football games with real teams and players. The case was recently settled, with EA agreeing to pay $27 million into a fund that can be claimed by consumers of EA football games. The fact that the parties reached a settlement under Wilken's watch bears notice, as O'Bannon and the NCAA could ultimately do the same.

Wilken usually certifies classes. SI.com conducted an analysis of her 29 orders on class certification from 1998-2013. It found that she denied certification only six times (21 percent), while she granted certification 18 times (62 percent) and partially granted it five times (17 percent). Keep in mind, these orders concerned facts and claims mostly dissimilar from those raised by O'Bannon. Thus they may not be accurate predictors. Still, Wilken's history is a good sign for O'Bannon.

To read the rest, click here.

Also, as the O'Bannon hearing nears, there are many in-depth stories on Sonny Vaccaro, including this one in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by J. Brady McCollough.  Here's an excerpt from One-Man Rebellion:

"Mr. Vaccaro has that Magic Johnson factor, that aura about him," O'Bannon says. "I don't know if you've met Magic Johnson, but when you talk to him and meet him face to face, you feel like you're the one person that he wants to talk to at that moment. Mr. Vaccaro has that same effect. I've always felt like, when I talk to him, I'm the most important person in his life."

* * *

As the decades passed, Vaccaro became obsessed. He couldn't stomach the NCAA's transfer rules, forcing players to sit out for a year after transferring. He railed against the NBA's age limit of 19, which forced players to play one year of college basketball. The NCAA was glad to have the most talented players on campus, even for just a season.

Vaccaro's tipping point came one day when he was watching ESPN Classic and he realized that the NCAA, by licensing the rights of the games to be re-aired on the network, was able to continue making money off the players into eternity. Vaccaro felt that players should be paid residuals anytime their likenesses were used after their careers were over.

To read the rest, click here.

Foul up 3?

I long have been a believer in fouling up 3 in the closing seconds. Studies suggest it is advantageous, although not statistically so, at the NBA and college levels, although some studies differ.

But with the Spurs just having blown the NBA title by not fouling in that situation (much as I believe in all things Popovich, no way they bounce back from this on the road), is the consensus on this going to change?

Ignorance of the laws (of baseball) is no excuse

There has been a lot of criticism directed at umpires for not knowing the rules. But, as this ESPN feature shows, the rules can be pretty complicated and obscure. It includes a rules quiz, one of which touches on the Infield Fly Rule (I did get that one right). I got 5 out of 10.

Comments on the Redskins Nickname

The issue of the Redskins nickname seems to be hitting a boiling point right now. Here are various pieces talking about it in various contexts. I do agree with the conclusion of the last one (written as an open letter to Dan): You are going to lose this.

McCann on Slate's Hang Up and Listen

Our own Michael McCann was on Slate's sports podcast, Hang Up and Listen, talking about baseball's efforts to suspend players for PED use based on evidence provided by Tony Bosch, the former head of Biogenesis. Mike's segement starts at 17:10. Great segment.