Skip Bayless: Let Boosters Pay Players

[brandx]

Give me a break. The kid that just decommitted from SMU signed a 1 year deal in China for $1.2M.
 

I'm guessing you really don't know the facts. The only options he had to play basketball were the Far East where he could earn real money or the D-League where he would make less than someone working at Starbucks. That's it!

And the only reason this is the case is that all the rich, capitalist, free-marketers are only rich, capitalist, free-marketers when their own pockets are getting lined.

[brandx]

There are lots of professions with restrictions.  I could study for years to be an expert in medicine, but not want to pay for medical school.  I would still be banned from ever practicing that trade, even if I was far superior from my independent training.

I could become an expert in the legal field and publish article after article in legal journals, but would be banned from practicing law unless I went to law school.

You are equating profession that can determine whether a person lives or dies with basketball? Let's not get silly while we make our arguments.

[ChicosBailBonds]

That's the beauty of Bayless' argument.  He's not advocating that schools squeeze their athletic departments budgets to pay the players, he's just saying let boosters -- volunteers willing to foot the bill -- have the ability to toss away as much of their own personal wealth as they want in order to recruit/compensate players.  He's really saying just legalize what many schools, especially in the SEC, already are doing under the table, so every booster can have the equal right to willingly toss money recruits way.

Can we pinpoint the size of the SEC under the table scheme?  Or is it more rare than reality and has a life of its own?  Sure, there is Cam Newton and certainly others.  Obviously others that haven't been caught, but one wonders how much of it is also built up as myth, too.  Do not think anyone knows this answer, but I suspect bigger in the imagination than reality.  Maybe if Bayless could use his expert journalistic skills to expose how big the problem is he would have more supporters on this, but until he can define the problem accurately his solution may be opening up the abuse many X times. 

His argument is the old "well they're doing it anyway so just legalize it".  That has gone haywire over the years in many examples. 

[Atticus]

I'm guessing you really don't know the facts. The only options he had to play basketball were the Far East where he could earn real money or the D-League where he would make less than someone working at Starbucks. That's it!

And the only reason this is the case is that all the rich, capitalist, free-marketers are only rich, capitalist, free-marketers when their own pockets are getting lined.

Poor kid. He had to go all the way to the "Far East" to earn some money ($1.2M) playing basketball. Jeez, I really hope he doesn't have a long morning commute to the gym everyday. Maybe he should file a grievance...

[ChicosBailBonds]

Jay Bilas once described how it would work ...

Big time blue chip recruit gets 300k plus tuition.   Big time recruit, agrees to stay 2 years, maintain a 2.5 GPA and not get arrested.   If big time recruit leaves early, fails to keep grades or gets busted, the contract details fine and damages big time recruit must pay.

Finally since big time recruit is getting paid, he can hire tutors (the school can provide a list if interested) and an accountant to pay taxes.

Awesome.  This is going to be so great.  Incredibly well thought out, too.  I can't wait for the game fixing kicks in, when the holdouts start happening, etc.  It's going to be awesome.

[brandx]

Poor kid. He had to go all the way to the "Far East" to earn some money ($1.2M) playing basketball. Jeez, I really hope he doesn't have a long morning commute to the gym everyday. Maybe he should file a grievance...

Yup. An 18 year old kid has to go to a different country, different culture, different language, different game for what reason?

Oh, because in his own country, he is banned from trying to make it in the NBA.

Ah.... the Land of Opportunity.

[Atticus]

Yup. An 18 year old kid has to go to a different country, different culture, different language, different game for what reason?

Oh, because in his own country, he is banned from trying to make it in the NBA.

Ah.... the Land of Opportunity.

Lol. Take it up with the NBA. As I stated in my original post, the NBA's age limit shouldn't be the NCAA's problem. That was my point.

I was 19 when I studied abroad. Loved it. I even willingly went as a poor college student. No one dangled $1.2M in my face.

If the market is in china...go to china. Or don't. No one forced him.

[forgetful]

You are equating profession that can determine whether a person lives or dies with basketball? Let's not get silly while we make our arguments.

Ners claimed he couldn't think of a single profession.  Those are the most obvious and thus are fine for an argument of that sort.  Whether their should be restrictions is a whole different argument compared to whether there are other examples of it occurring.

The fact is, that there are a lot of restrictions requiring a specific amount of training and proof of ability before one can be employed in specific professions.

The reason I picked the examples I did, is because it involves a group within that profession (doctors, lawyers, CPA's) that dictate the requirements to joint the 'club'.  Just like the players associations help dictate what is required in their discipline.

[Tugg Speedman]

Awesome.  This is going to be so great.  Incredibly well thought out, too.  I can't wait for the game fixing kicks in, when the holdouts start happening, etc.  It's going to be awesome.

We have game fixing now.  We have a version of holdouts now (see ReggieSmith and McKay).

The current system is broken now.  This might make it better.

[Tugg Speedman]

Can we pinpoint the size of the SEC under the table scheme?  Or is it more rare than reality and has a life of its own?  Sure, there is Cam Newton and certainly others.  Obviously others that haven't been caught, but one wonders how much of it is also built up as myth, too. Do not think anyone knows this answer, but I suspect bigger in the imagination than reality.  Maybe if Bayless could use his expert journalistic skills to expose how big the problem is he would have more supporters on this, but until he can define the problem accurately his solution may be opening up the abuse many X times.  

His argument is the old "well they're doing it anyway so just legalize it".  That has gone haywire over the years in many examples.  

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=39961.0

See the highlighted parts

Booster Proud of His Largess and Game-Day Parties

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/sports/ncaafootball/booster-proud-of-his-largess-and-game-day-parties.html?hp

Roy Adams’s two-story brick home is tucked neatly into a middle-class residential street. In the driveway, University of Tennessee and Southeastern Conference flags fly at full staff. On the front door, a poster urges his guests to adhere to a five-drink limit.

Adams may be 75 years old, but his home looks like something dreamed up by teenage fraternity brothers: he has 36 big-screen televisions, five TV viewing rooms, three game rooms, a wet bar and, on a recent afternoon, two tapped kegs.

Adams, a retired restaurant and real estate developer, has been called the Great Gatsby of college sports for his legendary game-day parties, which often include athletes, coaches and politicians mixing with a crowd that can top 100. But he is more than a septuagenarian party animal.

A 1963 graduate of Tennessee, Adams represents the twilight of a college sports booster. For more than 40 years, he cherished his role as a benefactor for players, even if it meant breaking a few rules. If college athletes generally receive gifts in the shadows, Roy Adams is the rare booster who crows about his largess.

He is not remorseful, and now, largely out of the booster game, he says he is proud of his life’s work and the friendships he has made.

“I knew the N.C.A.A. rules,” he said. “I just didn’t care for them.”

As a national debate swirls over whether college athletes should be paid, Adams revels in memories of the old days when he distributed cash with a wink to favored players. By his own estimate, he has spent $400,000 on food, clothes, cash and a handful of cars for college athletes.

“I’ve always found him to be one of the more fascinating people I’ve met in college sports,” said Paul Finebaum, an ESPN radio host and former columnist. “He’s a throwback to a more romantic time.”

Today’s boosters, Adams said, have lost the intimate relationships with players he always sought. From his perspective, the N.C.A.A. rules have tightened drastically. And the players have changed too. “Today you give a kid a Chevrolet, and he wants a Cadillac,” Adams said. “You give them $1,000, they want two or three. It’s not the same as it used to be.”

Adams has been a Tennessee football fan for decades, but now, instead of making trips to Knoxville, he brings the party to his TV rooms — all five of them. On a typical Saturday, guests spill from room to room, passing a shuffleboard table, a stuffed deer head, a signed photograph from the former Tennessee star Peyton Manning.

On one wall a photograph of Adams shaking hands with Nick Saban hangs above a signed picture of Richard Nixon. In the pantry, Adams had a urinal installed. Then there are all the televisions, squeezed together like puzzle pieces around every corner. His friends say there is no better sports bar in Memphis.

On a recent afternoon, the Shelby County mayor was a guest. Romaro Miller, who played quarterback at Mississippi before Eli Manning, was there. So were Bobby Ray Franklin, the quarterback who led Ole Miss to a share of the 1959 national championship, and Ron Gust, who played for Tennessee in the 1950s.

On fall Saturdays, two cooks arrive at Adams’s home at 7 a.m. to prepare a menu of more than 30 dishes in an industrial-size kitchen Adams had installed several years ago. He offers a buffet that ranges from sushi to fried chicken cooked in a vat on the back patio. Adams said he spends around $1,500 each weekend on the spread.

On this afternoon, Adams’s beloved Tennessee visited Florida. As a flood of guests arrived before kickoff, Adams bellowed gleefully, “No Democrats or Florida fans allowed!”

Many of the guests are former college players and beneficiaries of Adams’s generosity, creating an eclectic mix of boosters, former jocks and current high school coaches from around the area. Most SEC teams are represented among the crowd. An Arkansas fan chided Volunteer supporters about the hillbillies in east Tennessee. Female Ole Miss students were the butt of another joke.

Adams hurried from room to room, making sure the food was just so and each guest properly attended to. Stories tumbled out of his mouth in between sips from an old-fashioned. “Nobody’s wife would ever let them do this,” he said. “I’m a bachelor, so I can.”

Adams recalls his bending of the N.C.A.A. rules with a wistful smile. He described players lining up outside his Knoxville hotel room knowing he would happily slip them a few bucks. Players at Arkansas State, Memphis and Ole Miss have also been the recipients of his generosity and hospitality.

Adams has had several run-ins with the N.C.A.A. and his alma mater. He said the former Tennessee athletic director Doug Dickey once confronted him outside the locker room and told him to stay away from the team. The N.C.A.A. investigated Adams in the late 1980s for sponsoring a recruiting trip for two players to visit the University of Houston. Adams’s defense was that he never did the bidding of any one school. He said he regularly sent money to Cortez Kennedy, the Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle, when he played at Miami. It was proper, he said, because he had no association to the school.

“I’m a friend to all athletes, everywhere,” he said, beaming.

In 2000, Adams became well known in Tennessee circles as a commentator who helped spark the federal investigation and conviction of Logan Young, an Alabama booster in Memphis who paid a coach $150,000 to steer defensive lineman Albert Means to Tuscaloosa.

In a wrongful termination civil suit later brought by two Alabama coaches that stemmed from the Young case, Adams was deposed. He wore a white coonskin cap and an orange blazer and brought along a bottle of Tennessee sipping whiskey to the proceedings.

Adams relishes the memory. “I couldn’t think of anything that would upset an Alabama lawyer more,” he said.

Adams was born in Batesville, Miss., to tenant farmers and moved to Memphis in childhood. As a teenager, he worked as a Senate page in Washington. Autographed pictures of Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Estes Kefauver are prominent on the walls. (His politics shifted right after the Jimmy Carter administration.)

At Tennessee, he fell in love with the pageantry of football. When he returned to Memphis, he served on the national board of governors for the Tennessee Alumni Association. “I didn’t have a family,” he said. “This became my family.”

Adams managed a Goodyear store in Memphis and then opened a chain of Adams Family Restaurants. He worked in real estate before retiring. As he reflected on the string of scandals gripping college sports, in part because of boosters like him, he chuckled.

“It’s funny,” he said. “You’d be right to say I wasted my life on football, but it can be a very emotional game.”

He added: “I like to take care of people. Now I want people to come over here and enjoy themselves.”

Late in the afternoon, a graphic flashed on one of the televisions showing the seven straight national championships won by SEC teams. Adams’s eyes gleamed as he chanted, “S-E-C! S-E-C!”

“All this — the parties, the friends, the football,” said Pete Story, a local high school coach. “I think it’s what keeps Roy alive.”

[GGGG]

But the reaction to an overly regulated system isn't complete anarchy.  I am all for enhanced benefits, and I don't care one lick if scholarships for Olympic sports are diminished as a result.  I am also not opposed to athletes cashing in on their likeness in some way.

But just turning everyone loose I don't think is the answer.

I'm also not going to buy into Chico's hyperbole that its the end of the world if athletes get more money either.

[GooooMarquette]

Ners claimed he couldn't think of a single profession.  Those are the most obvious and thus are fine for an argument of that sort.  Whether their should be restrictions is a whole different argument compared to whether there are other examples of it occurring.

The fact is, that there are a lot of restrictions requiring a specific amount of training and proof of ability before one can be employed in specific professions.

The reason I picked the examples I did, is because it involves a group within that profession (doctors, lawyers, CPA's) that dictate the requirements to joint the 'club'.  Just like the players associations help dictate what is required in their discipline.

Yep.  And add teachers, dental hygieinsts and plenty of other occupations - which don't determine whether people live or die - that have minimum requirements before you can make a living.  A huge portion of our economy is filled with people who had to go to a certain amount of schooling and pass various tests to be eligible for their occupation.

[Tugg Speedman]

But the reaction to an overly regulated system isn't complete anarchy.  I am all for enhanced benefits, and I don't care one lick if scholarships for Olympic sports are diminished as a result.  I am also not opposed to athletes cashing in on their likeness in some way.

But just turning everyone loose I don't think is the answer.

I'm also not going to buy into Chico's hyperbole that its the end of the world if athletes get more money either.

Why is it required that the football and basketball teams pay for all the non revenue sports?  Is the business school required to pay for the English department?  Is the engineering program required to pay for the philosophy department?

Schools will make a determination if the want more than two sports teams (football and basketball).  My guess is the Olympic sports will be fine.

[Tugg Speedman]

Yep.  And add teachers, dental hygieinsts and plenty of other occupations - which don't determine whether people live or die - that have minimum requirements before you can make a living.  A huge portion of our economy is filled with people who had to go to a certain amount of schooling and pass various tests to be eligible for their occupation.

Yes but the national association of dental hygienists, or the national association of teachers did not pass rule requiring an age requirement for employment.  The national basketball association does have an age requirement.

Age discrimination is something recognized by the law, education discrimination is not.

[GGGG]

Why is it required that the football and basketball teams pay for all the non revenue sports?  Is the business school required to pay for the English department?  Is the engineering program required to pay for the philosophy department?

Schools will make a determination if the want more than two sports teams (football and basketball).  My guess is the Olympic sports will be fine.

It isn't "required" that football and basketball pay for all non revenue sports.  It is a side-effect of the NCAA requiring a minimum number of sports.

Similarly, at a number of institutions, departments like engineering likely do underwrite departments like philosophy.  In fact, due to core curriculum requirements, that is likely the case at Marquette.

[GGGG]

Yes but the national association of dental hygienists, or the national association of teachers did not pass rule requiring an age requirement for employment.  The national basketball association does have an age requirement.

Age discrimination is something recognized by the law, education discrimination is not.

The age discrimination in this case is perfectly legal since it is part of the labor agreement with the NBAPA.

[Dawson Rental]

Can we pinpoint the size of the SEC under the table scheme?  Or is it more rare than reality and has a life of its own?  Sure, there is Cam Newton and certainly others.  Obviously others that haven't been caught, but one wonders how much of it is also built up as myth, too.  Do not think anyone knows this answer, but I suspect bigger in the imagination than reality.  Maybe if Bayless could use his expert journalistic skills to expose how big the problem is he would have more supporters on this, but until he can define the problem accurately his solution may be opening up the abuse many X times. 

His argument is the old "well they're doing it anyway so just legalize it".  That has gone haywire over the years in many examples. 

The source of my knowledge of the SEC under the table scheme is thinly based.  It's based upon the article posted here a while back called something like "The Ten Rules for Paying College Athletes" which was discussed in its own thread.

[MU82]

Yep.  And add teachers, dental hygieinsts and plenty of other occupations - which don't determine whether people live or die - that have minimum requirements before you can make a living.  A huge portion of our economy is filled with people who had to go to a certain amount of schooling and pass various tests to be eligible for their occupation.

I think a more apples-to-apples comparison with athletes are performers.

Concert musicians, actors, singers, dancers, etc.

In a free-market society, these people are free to pursue their professions of choice without the requirement of a college degree. Some choose to study acting, singing, violin and dance, but the professional powers-that-be who control the purse strings do not require such study. Nor do they place arbitrary age limits on the pursuit of the profession.

The NFL is a monopoly. In fact, it was ruled so in a court of law in the USFL trial - even though damages were only $1, it doesn't invalidate the ruling. If you want to earn money playing football in the United States, you have little choice but to kowtow to the monopoly. Its requirement that an athlete spend three years in college is arbitrary, unnecessary and self-serving. I would like to see some athletes fight it in court; the problem is that the deep-pocketed NFL would cause so many delays in any legal proceeding that the athlete would be at least a college junior by the time he'd get heard anyway.

A violin prodigy can play in a symphony at age 15 without one second of college training. A 10-year-old actor can get nominated for an Oscar. For that matter, a tennis pro can play in the U.S. Open at 16 without even thinking about college.

But the NFL monopoly is allowed to require its athletes to spend three years in its "minor league." Seems pretty un-American and un-free-market to me.

Now, what Bayless is proposing is a whole different discussion.

[GGGG]

The NFL is a monopoly. In fact, it was ruled so in a court of law in the USFL trial - even though damages were only $1, it doesn't invalidate the ruling. If you want to earn money playing football in the United States, you have little choice but to kowtow to the monopoly. Its requirement that an athlete spend three years in college is arbitrary, unnecessary and self-serving. I would like to see some athletes fight it in court; the problem is that the deep-pocketed NFL would cause so many delays in any legal proceeding that the athlete would be at least a college junior by the time he'd get heard anyway.

Maurice Clarett fought it in the courts and he lost. 

[Tugg Speedman]

Maurice Clarett fought it in the courts and he lost.  

Clarett Won in lower court, narrowly reversed on appeal.

[GGGG]

In a free-market society, these people are free to pursue their professions of choice without the requirement of a college degree. Some choose to study acting, singing, violin and dance, but the professional powers-that-be who control the purse strings do not require such study. Nor do they place arbitrary age limits on the pursuit of the profession.

Actually, in many places, you have to be a member of the American Federation of Musicians to play in the major orchestras, on Broadway, etc.  

In New York, they require you to be 21 to be a full member of this union.  Very similar to the agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA.

Now of course you don't have to be a member of the union to play side gigs and the like.  But age restrictions on union membership aren't as uncommon as you think.

[GGGG]

Clarett Won in lower court, narrowly reversed on appeal.

If by "narrowly" you mean "unanimously," you would be right.

[Tugg Speedman]

If by "narrowly" you mean "unanimously," you would be right.

2/05/2014 @ 8:55AM 970 views
The NFL Age Requirement Was Briefly 'Sacked' Ten Years Ago Today

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2014/02/05/the-nfl-age-requirement-was-briefly-sacked-ten-years-ago-today/

Ten years ago today, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the National Football League’s age requirement violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act.

This decision led both Ohio State University sophomore Maurice Clarett and University of Southern California sophomore Mike Williams to declare for the 2004 NFL draft.  It also led to a vehement appeal by the National Football League, and the filing of amicus briefs on the NFL’s behalf by the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and even the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Although the district court’s decision in Clarett v. NFL was later reversed on appeal by Hon. Sonia Sotomayor (then, serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit), the decision still marked a watershed moment in sports law history as, for a brief moment, it called into doubt the NFL’s age/education requirement.

The 2004 challenge to the NFL’s age requirement received about as much attention as any sports law case in recent history.

The plaintiff, Maurice Clarett, had rushed for a record-setting 1,237 yards and 18 touchdowns the previous year as a freshman at Ohio State University.  However, Clarett was declared ineligible to play college football as a sophomore based on accusations that he had received improper benefits from boosters in violation of the NCAA rules.

Wanting to continue to play football on some level, Clarett hired attorney Alan Milstein to represent him in a legal challenge against the NFL age requirement.  To help him with this challenge, Milstein then brought aboard current University of New Hampshire sports law professor Michael McCann, who at the time was a newly minted attorney.

Under Milstein and McCann’s guidance, Clarett filed an antitrust claim in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that argued the NFL’s league-wide age requirement served as a form of illegal group boycott.

In response, the NFL argued that the league’s age restraint was exempt from antitrust scrutiny because it was a topic eligible for collective bargaining and thus was subject only to review under labor law.

After reviewing party briefs and hearing oral arguments, the U.S. District Court decided in favor of Clarett.  Judge Shira Scheindlin penned a decision filled with football analogies, and including the famous line that the NFL age requirement “must be sacked.”

As a result, both Clarett and Williams declared their eligibility for the 2004 NFL draft.

Nevertheless, Clarett’s legal victory was short-lived, as the decision was reversed on appeal by a three judge panel that included now Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor.

As a result, neither Maurice Clarett nor Mike Williams were ultimately allowed to enter the NFL that season.  Making matters worse, the NCAA also denied Williams the opportunity to return to college football.

The NCAA’s internal review process concluded that lost his collegiate eligibility when he relied on the district court decision in Clarett, hired an agent, and had declared for the NFL draft.

[Tugg Speedman]

...a and now the NCAA wants the age restrictions removed


College Sports Goes on the Offensive
Colleges Push Pros to Change Their Draft Rules
Ben Cohen and Rachel Bachman
Oct. 1, 2013 11:12 p.m. ET

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303643304579109732901549934

As the NCAA faces the greatest existential peril in its history and scrambles for fundamental reforms by next summer, its power brokers are floating a radical solution for saving college sports: expanding professional sports.

NCAA president Mark Emmert recently raised the idea of allowing athletes to go pro straight out of high school instead of effectively forcing them to attend college. NFL rules currently require football players to wait three years after graduating high school, and the NBA restricts draft eligibility to those who are 19 and one year removed from high school.

Last week, Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany echoed Emmert: "Why is it our job to be minor leagues for professional sports?" he said.

Other commissioners of major conferences offered their support in interviews this week with The Wall Street Journal. Big 12 Conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby said he was "in complete agreement" with those statements. "I don't think it makes any sense to force kids to go to college who don't want an education," he said.

As other NCAA reform options are considered, like adding a $2,000 or $3,000 stipend to cover the full cost of attendance for scholarship athletes or putting money in a trust fund they can access after graduation, the one proposal that is off the table is pay for play. NCAA officials instead are trying to steer athletes who are primarily interested in pro careers straight to the NFL and NBA—or at least putting pressure on the leagues to act.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said he and his peers' recent outspokenness on the issue stems in part from "a brimming confidence in our ability to make significant change." Last year those commissioners enacted college football's first-ever playoff, which launches next season. Before, "people in college sports have been resigned to say, 'There's nothing we can do about it,'" he said. "Myself and others are not willing to accept that."

Creating alternative paths for prospective pro athletes isn't a novel idea. University presidents are academics by training, and intercollegiate athletics' $100 million budgets and potential for cheating often represent universities' biggest headaches.

"You put them in a room and pull down the shades, and most university presidents would love to find a way to spin it off," Michigan president emeritus James Duderstadt said.

College bigwigs are pitching this idea at a time when the NCAA is under legal assault and the subject of public debate over the prospect of compensating college athletes beyond their scholarships. A federal judge in Oakland, Calif., is considering whether to grant class-action status to former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon's lawsuit the alleges the NCAA conspired with its business partners to set the price of a college athlete's name, image and likeness at zero. Plaintiffs are seeking a slice of the NCAA's and its member schools' billions in licensing and television-rights money. The NCAA has said that it neither attempts to profit from athletes' likenesses nor instructs its partners to do so.

To be sure, only the NFL and NBA can change their eligibility rules, and they haven't shown any signs that they might. An NFL spokesman said the league wasn't considering changing its draft policy. The NFL Players Association didn't respond to requests for comment. Neither the NBA nor the National Basketball Players Association responded to requests for comment.

The NFL's requirements are stricter than those for the NHL and Major League Baseball, which generally allow athletes to enter the draft after high school. NCAA executives want to model a football policy after baseball's: High-school players are allowed to enter the MLB draft, but if they choose a four-year college, they must stay through their junior year or until they turn 21.

Until the 2006 draft, high-school basketball players could jump straight to the NBA, as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant did. The NBA's current arrangement—in which players can go pro after one year of college—is bemoaned by even the college coaches who use it to their advantage. Scott said that the one-and-done pattern "makes a mockery of the student-athlete" and that halting it is one of commissioners' "major priorities" for the next few years. "I don't mind them turning pro out of high school," Scott said, "but if they come to college, they should stay for three years."

Some legal experts believe pro leagues may be compelled to act. The NFL lost an antitrust lawsuit brought by former Ohio State star Maurice Clarett, who challenged the NFL's three-year window of ineligibility. But a federal appeals court that included future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor overturned the decision in 2004 on the grounds that the rule was collectively bargained with the NFLPA.

Legal analysts say a similar case could win in another appeals court, like the Eighth Circuit, where the case law takes a harsher view of rules that prohibit certain groups of people from gaining employment. The ruling hasn't deterred Alan Milstein, Clarett's attorney in that case. With the right player—a sure top-10 pick too young to legally play in the NFL—Milstein believes he could win a lawsuit against the NFL.

[GGGG]

OK thanks Heisenberg.  As I said, it was unanimously overturned on appeal.