How does a state court have the ability to enforce its will outside of the state of its jurisdiction?
The first one I assume says that any dispute between Mensah and Duke University is to be litigated under the laws of North Carolina.
The 2nd one is the one I’m really interested in is the case of the former G-League basketball player at Alabama. I don’t see how a state court judge can say the NCAA’s rules don’t prohibit them from ruling he cannot play in a game in Tennessee and they can’t enforce their rules in the case. If this were a federal court, I would get it.
One more step to the destruction of college sports as we have know them.
Please help this guy who isn’t an attorney but stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Article IV, Sec. 1:
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
Try open carry in New York.
Try reading a book in Tennessee.
The full faith and credit clause is not designed to make the laws of each state the same.
But if you married in Nevada, you are still married when you later move to Florida. And if you get divorced in Florida you are still divorced when you return to Nevada.
However, if you married two women in Utah, even if the law there allowed it, well then you’re a bigamist in Ohio.
Moreover, if the NCAA does not want to be subject to the rulings of an Alabama Circuit Judge, it can stop doing business in that state and tell every judge in it to go fuck themselves.
But if they choose to subject themselves to the jurisdiction of Alabama they risk being told what to do by an Alabama Circuit Judge or face the consequences.
“Try reading a book in Tennessee.” Derek, you are either a woman, a midget, or a psychopath. I can’t figure which.
Sorry for presenting you with a set of words that closely simulated what is experienced by a gibbon when confronted with an abacus.
Ok, guys. Don’t make me sorry I asked the question.
The player’s NIL contract may have paragraphs that say he submits to jurisdiction of Durham County courts and agrees that they are the venue for disputes arising out of his NIL contract. Injunctions aren’t ‘normal’ in contract lawsuits, so the the contract might also have paragraphs that say it can be enforced by injunction in addition to money damages.
As far as having effect in Miami-Dade County, they might have to domesticate their injunction judgment in Florida.
A big point to me is: how would they domesticate and enforce an injunction in a timely manner? Invalidate his enrollment at Miami?
PS I like seeing Century Schoolbook typeface in court papers. Lawyers and judges should be treated like they’re reading Sally Dick and Jane.
See Spot run. Run Spot run.
But not right justified paragraphs!!
Wouldn’t Comic Sans be more appropriate?
One has to attempt the impression of seriousness.
It is more nuanced than the premise of the question. Once the North Carolina court acquired personal jurisdiction over Mensah the court had the power to issue an order affecting him. If that ruling barred Mensah from committing some act then the court issuing the ruling has the power to enforce the ruling regardless of where Mensah was located when he committed the violation. The order prohits him from enrolling in another college or playing football for another college . If he enrolls in another college he is in contempt of court.
Analogies it to a Family Violence Temporary Protective Order that a Fulton Supedior Court issued ordering that John Doe not hit Jane Doe. If Jane Doe is visiting her family in South Carolina and John Doe finds her in South Carolina and hits her the Fulton Superior Court has jurisdiction to enforce the TPO.
From a jurisdictional standpoint the analysis between the Mensah order and the hypothetical Fulton Superior Court is the same.
Some of us warned, many times, that if every NCAA rule was characterized as a “restraint on trade”, eventually every rule would be thrown out – welcome to Anarchy! I don’t think we are quite at the bottom of the slippery slope yet, but the G-league player who was allowed to come back, this Alabama basketball player, and Trinidad (not sure if it has been issued yet but, if not, it is surely coming from the Mississippi state court judge) are getting us pretty close….
Yep. NCAA lawyers f’ed this up trying to protect amateurism while their client ventured far off course to make money for themselves at the athlete’s expense. I don’t think Congress will move fast enough to save them beyond the tipping point.
God help us if we’re waiting on Congress. 😉
Not enough message board commentators posted that if the NCAA insisted on violating the Sherman Antitrust Act it would lead to anarchy. Those folks should have urged the NCAA and the Universities to stop futile defenses to court cases and to create a structure in which players got paid that complied with the Act.
The NCAA knew as far back as 1985 after Oklahoma v NCAA that Antitrust laws applied to it. The NCAA is run by the colleges. The colleges had plenty of time to solve this mess but they loved the money that they got to keep. Blame them, not the players.
Since we getting all legal here I believe the year of Oklahoma V NCAA is 1984. We also share some blame as we were one of the plaintifs.
Thank you for the correction.
Gaskill, you hit on a topic that very few people understand. The NCAA is merely an extension of the universities, conference commissioners, and AD. People lose the minds when they hear the NCAA speak, but that anger is misguided. The anger should be directed towards the schools and ADs.
Not unlike the commissioners of the NFL, MLB, and NBA, who serve at the pleasure of the owners–like the cops in company towns serve at the pleasure of those companies and do their bidding, workers and their families be damned. Nothing to see here. Move along.
The blood is oozing into the water, the sharks are circling. College football is over and done! The NCAA and it’s commissioners and presidents sat idolly by and did not do a FRIGGIN thing except sit back and hoard their millions of dollars in salary and compensation. Pathetic POS!!!
What do you propose they do?
Declare the athletes as employees & open collective bargaining.
The writing has been on the wall for some time.
Other than strikes and the input of the NRLB, what do we have to gain there exactly?
The only fix, and one the NCAA has lobbied for, but ain’t getting, is an antitrust exemption.
The most fun “what if” scenario is to make a rule that no employee of a college athletic department can influence the admission of a potential college student or contact a potential player until they are enrolled in the college.
Anonymous,
I signed up for that a long time ago…
Have Kirby put up a sign twice a year that says:
“Football tryouts March 1st (July 1st)
Please bring current student ID card. Warning: college admissions documents and current gpa subject to disclosure upon request.”
Pick your 105 best and roll out there on the first Saturday in September.
College fucking football as God intended!
This. It would potentially fix the portal issue.
They could have done like OJ and hired smarter lawyers. I’m being facetious of course but hey, it worked for OJ.
Were they smarter lawyers or just the right crew with the left glove…
Should’ve hired Johnnie Cochran. His Chewbacca defense is undefeated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV6NoNkDGsU
I’m surprised there hasn’t been an appeal to an appellate court.
The law requires that there be an interlocutory injunction hearing in the trial court ASAP after entry of a TRO. A party cannot appeal a ruling that is not a final order or judgment unless the appellate court grants permission to appeal from a ruling that is not a final order. The NCAA and/or Mensah would have to filed a request in the appellate court for permission to appeal and they will have the interlocutory hearing before that leave to appeal is considered in the appellate court. Also, the appellate court would let the interlocutory hearing take place in the trial court. If the trial court vacated it at the interlocutory hearing then that solves the respondents’ immediate dilemma.
Appreciate the input.
It may be worth noting that in Alabama every judgeship is an elected position.
If a large number (if it’s even legal….I’m no lawyer) of college presidents agreed to boycott the portal, would it dry that problem up?
Or would enough not agree… realizing the advantage of being the only shopper at a fire sale?
I know colleges can’t hamper a student’s attempt to transfer, but they can ignore it can’t they?
Can colleges not demand that a student athlete attempting to transfer in meet all of the established entrance requirements non-athlete applicants have to meet? What if they agreed to do just that?
(yeah..naive thought…but what if?)
What if the conference required that?
“We’re running an institution of higher learning here..not a semi-pro football program. The players are actually students. Some of the students happen to also be athletes.”
Do not college presidents have the means to fix a lot of this crap if they can see past the allure of killing the golden goose for the temporary gratification of raking in TV money?
Or is the pressure from $$$$ and alumni so great that they’ve forfeited their values?
The problem is that most competitive schools use the portal to get rid guys and improve.
The only ones who are signing up for this proposal aren’t trying to win football games.
Everyone focuses on the one guy who got away and forget about the dozen who were shown the door to make room.
A university president has one job…raise money. None would tell a booster they are unilaterally withdrawing from competition if the boosters say otherwise. This is the whole problem…they are not team owners or GMs so there has not been and will not be any real control over sports operations across the board.
The problem is that the Universities are all competing with one another, trying to gain an advantage, skirt/brush up against the *current rules*, etc. Then everyone sees them do that, and everyone immediately does the same thing; rinse, repeat, ad nauseum, until we reach Anarchy! Any perceived advantage is fleeting (at best)…
The Universities/NCAA refuse to recognize/admit that what they are actually in is the entertainment business and that, to have an entertaining product for fans, there must be agreed-upon rules of the game before the contestants begin the contest. As many around MLB are realizing, few people want to see one team blow out all the others and win all the championships (particularly because they have/spend more money than all the other teams) – that is simply not entertaining for everyone else, and so there must be rules to ensure a “fair” competition. No one knows this better than the NFL, which desires and promotes “parity” above all else, so they can talk about how close all the games are (which increases the entertainment value thereof).
As long as the Universities/NCAA continue to pretend they are in the student-athlete business and keep trying to beat each other, instead of admitting they’re in the entertainment business together and must coordinate, they will keep getting curb-stomped and things will continue to get worse….
Agreeing to boycott the portal would be the football version of the Major League Baseball owners agreeing not to sign free agents in the late 1980s. The Players Association sued in Antitrust arguing that the colluded refusal to shop in the free agent market was a organized restraint of the players opportunity to sell their talents.
Antitrust law provides that the prevailing party is entitled to triple its actual damages plus attorney fees. The MLB owners had to pay to the PA 3 times what they would have spent on players plus attorney fees and did not get the benefit from would be free agent signings.
So, no, don’t all of a sudden everyone stop signing from yhe portal.
I believe Adam Smith’s invisible hand might fix the portal issue as many players are finding themselves left high and dry and getting less money or nothing at all and thier playing days being over.
opps “their” playing days.
I read an article several years ago PRIOR to NIL and the wild west regarding this with FBS players (I wish I could find it). The top guys will find homes, but it was astonishing the number of 2nd tier players that did NOT get picked up by someone else in FBS or wound up in FCS, NAIA, or totally left high and dry.
Dude that’s why I came here cause the Senator was a lawyer lmao. I have no idea.
Attorney here. My personal choice has been to not follow along with any of the legal matters/issues/cases affecting college sports.
For this middle-aged sports fan, if the the national conversation is discussing the outcome of lawsuits, we’re so far removed from the college sports I LOVED that I just don’t care anymore. Things jumped the shark quite some time ago.
That said, I’ll always love watching Georgia and, when life permits, spending a Saturday in Sanford!
Came for the football, got a first year law school class!
I never have gotten a clear legal explanation when I asked the late Bluto this…how can Little League Baseball set rules of eligibility and compliance where the NCAA has failed? College team sports are still voluntary so why can’t age restrictions, qualifications, etc. be enforced? Did judge Wilkens give a bad ruling to poorly presented and misguided arguments by the NCAA? Seems the NCAA should have been able to say “our organization, our rules. Go play elsewhere if you don’t like it” and she essentially shut that down. To be clear, I blame the NCAA 100% for this entire mess and losing arguments instead of making simple reforms under the Olympic model that might have prevailed.
I think the problem the NCAA had was that they were “the only game in town.”
You can’t run a monopoly or a cartel and have the same rules as those who do not.
That’s why the litigation was framed as “antitrust.”
It is the way the market is defined for antitrust purposes. “Little League” is in the youth baseball market – there are dozens of competing youth baseball “leagues”/organizations/tournaments/promoters, just in East Cobb. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands across the country. You can go plow your corn, build a baseball field, start a youth league, and see if they will come! While “Little League” may be the best known and it gets its World Series on TV, there are (again) probably thousands of youth baseball leagues in the US streaming youth baseball games around the world. The Little League organization does not control or make rules for or try to commercially exploit any of these other thousands of organizations.
On the other hand, the NCAA’s members essentially control(led) the market for 18-22 YO amateur (snicker) athletics, for the most part. This would have probably been okay if we were still living in the ’70s and early ’80s, but the truth of the matter is that the (voracious, ruthless and ever expanding) commercial exploitation of those athletic events by the NCAA and its members since – oh say, 1984 – created such an imbalance that it was not feasible for any competitors to come into the market. The sad/disappointing part is that probably anytime between 1984 and Judge Wilkin’s ruling, the Universities/NCAA probably could have gotten an antitrust exemption from Congress and been willing to share the pie a bit, but they were so voracious chasing the money and refusing to share it that they became their own worst enemy….
Thank you both legal beagles…forgot it was the anti- trust angle they lost. I wonder if P4 break away, essentially creating a competing marketplace, they could prevail but guessing the horse ain’t ever coming back to the barn.
Probably just new cartel.
I suspect individual conferences could do their own thing if they chose to.
I just don’t think any of them are interested in falling outside of the lines drawn by the cartel.
Some fans/observers may be bitching, but those inside the tent are getting shit rich. Other than hoping for an antitrust exemption that makes them even more cash, they ain’t changing anything.
Bluto kept us informed enough to know the sport we grew up with was nearing its end. College Football today is an evolving ever expanding money grab by all involved. The only group I didn’t blame was the players. Now they’ve learned from their paymasters contracts are a suggestion.
That schools can call a player under contract then offer him more money to jump in the portal and switch to their team. That is where we are now.
That’s a big leap from not being allowed to feed players a burger after a game at our tailgate.
I care about Georgia now only. Once inside the stadium for a few hours I can forget about all the BS. At least for now I’m sure they’ll screw that up too.
What’s next players thanking their sponsors on the Jumbotron during commercial breaks. Offering me the opportunity to keep individual players at Georgia by sending Vemo cash at halftime. I can see it now help us fund a second half come back send cash now. Maybe honoring the section that Vemoed the most cash per quarter stand up be recognized. Cheerleaders shouting give me a C A S H what’s that spell send it now.
For this game to survive in any recognizable form, there are going to have to be binding contracts at some point. I keep waiting for a game where a player changes teams at half time.
Any “legal eagles” on the board fight real-estate law?? This dawg fan just got hosed selling my house and would love some advice on being able to fight back against the closing attorney that didn’t do his due diligence and got the math wrong prior to getting us to sign on the dotted line and leave us without a home and unable to afford another.