Our Kids Have Rights Too

On Friday, September 21, 2007, the PAC-10 Conference voted 10-0 in support of the decision reached by an appeals panel the day before and freed the way for Jereme Holland, a USC recruit, to transfer within the PAC-10 to Oregon. The PAC-10 imposes a “death penalty” of sorts and players desiring to transfer within the PAC-10 face a 1-year residency requirement, loss of 1-year of competition eligibility during the period of ineligibility and, during the 1-year period of ineligibility, a prohibition against the receipt of athletically-related financial aid. The practical effect of the rule is that only a handful of athletes have ever even attempted to transfer intra-conference. Notwithstanding the PAC-10 intra-conference transfer rule penalties, we were able to ensure that Jamere will be eligible to compete at Oregon in 2008, will receive financial aid immediately, during the 2007 school year, and Jamere will have 3 years of competition eligibility at Oregon. Praise Him.

Understand that the same NCAA and conference rules make curious distinction between rules affecting BCS-bowl eligible football programs and the likes to lesser divisions, and the various inter-collegiate sports, is and almost tacit admission of the for-profit business model employed by the “non-profit” institutions and athletic programs across the country. Fact of the matter is, the NCAA has a 2007 budget of over half a billion dollars and the Ohio State athletic budget recently became the first to total triple digits at approximately $102 million. No wonder the NCAA and conferences have rules tantamount to non-compete agreements and other restrictions on player movement. Sound like the fact situation which led to at least a semblance of free agency in professional sports to you, too?

While schools are required to send a notice to inform the athlete of his right to appeal the denial of a release to the school of choice and/or the decision to not support a waiver of the loss of a season and the prohibition against financial aid, parents are not advised or encouraged to seek the assistance of professional. Parents should, however, seek the assistance of a professional with experience in NCAA matters immediately upon deciding to transfer and before advising officials at the current school. Unrepresented families almost universally lose their appeals due to a lack of understanding of the myriad of NCAA and conference rules.

Our kids agree to the NCAA and conference rules when they sign the National Letter of Intent which incorporates thousands of rules by reference…rules which the player and his family are not provided with before nor encouraged to learn after the official signing. The NCAA has a body of rules and each conference has its own set of rules which are in many instances not uniform from sport to sport or conference to conference. For example, while the PAC-10 imposes a “death penalty” on intra-conference transfers, female student-athletes at the University of Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference will not be provided with a transfer release under any circumstances according to the Student-Athlete Handbook. It is noted that the UT rules is an apparent violation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program or activity at any educational institution that is a recipient of federal funds, whether public or private. The Women’s Sports Foundation estimates that 80% or more of all colleges and universities are not in compliance with Title IX., and most recently the UT rule has been applied to prevent Nia Ali, the freshman track athlete of the year in the SEC who recently transferred to USC in the PAC-10, from competing for USC this season.

The rules include a prohibition against the receipt of any type of “extra benefit,” which can include something as insignificant as a single meal even though the purpose of the rule was to discourage large cash payments/advances and “ghost” summer jobs to top athletes by agents or over zealous boosters. College athletes are also not able to market themselves in any form or fashion and all promotional, marketing opportunities and related monetary rewards are reaped at the institution level in the form of multi-million dollar local, regional or national radio and television contracts, endorsement deals and bowl participation payouts, i.e. Florida and Ohio State received approximately $15 million each for their participation in the BCS Championship Game in January 2007. At the same time, three Black Ohio State players from the inner city of Akron whose names were used in connection with a spaghetti dinner fundraiser…to raise funds so their parents could travel to the game…were threatened with suspension by the Ohio State Compliance (OSC) person and left the event immediately upon receiving a telephone call from OSC, which had been alerted to the event by a local reporter.

While the NCAA enjoys tax-exempt status, college sports is big business and enjoys a cheap….tuition, room and board…labor force. While our government imposes sanctions and other economic penalties on other countries for the “sweatshop” type situation permitted to exist in those countries, we allow our young children to be used to support a billion dollar industry called college sports which in many cases is so time consuming it takes our kids longer to graduate or the demands force them to major in areas of little or no interest to them so their class schedule fits into the demands of their sport.

If you have questions or require additional information, please contact Everett L. Glenn, Esq. at eglenn@espsportslawpro.com or call 562.619.8460.