Stanford Law Review Online has published an essay by William Gould on the 2011 NBA Lockout. Gould is a former chair of the NLRB and a leading scholar and advocate on sports-and-labor issues, (H/T: Concurring Opinions). Worth a read.

I'm thrilled to be joining Daryl Morey, Jessica Gelman, Gary Bettman, Scott Boras, Mark Cuban, Brian Burke, Adam Silver, Bill James and many others as a speaker at this year's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which will be held on March 2 and 3. In my view, it's hands-down the best sports business and sports law event of the year.Here are this year's list of...

For our Chicago-based readers, looks like a great panel coming up next Wednesday:* * *The Association for Conflict Resolution – Chicago ChapterPresentsDispute Resolution in the Sports WorldCome join ACR-Chicago for an evening with three experts on Sports Alternative Dispute Resolution! You will learn more about ADR in the sports world and the various alternative dispute mechanisms...

Rick Karcher, Maureen Weston, Woodie Dixon and other panelists will participate in what looks to be an excellent sports and entertainment law symposium at the University of Oregon School of Law next Friday. It is hosted by the law school's sports and entertainment law forum.Topics include:Women in Sports and EntertainmentThe number of women enrolled in law school and working...

Vermont Law School Professor and Sports Law Institute Deputy Director Brian Porto's new book, "The Supreme Court and the NCAA: The Case for Less Commercialism and More Due Process in College Sports," was recently published by the University of Michigan Press.Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, NCAA v. Board of Regents (1984) and NCAA v. Tarkanian (1988), have shaped...

The National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) has released its Preliminary Report regarding the November 18, 2011 airplane crash that killed Oklahoma State University (“OSU”) Women’s Basketball coach Kurt Budke and his assistant coach, Miranda Serna. The Piper Cherokee 180 was owned and flown by former Oklahoma State Senator Olin Branstetter who, along with his wife...

The NHL says it will postpone its plans for realignment because the players association wouldn't approve it in time for next year's schedules. (The union has taken to Twitter to deny it balked at the plan.) This is tied to travel, which is subject to collective bargaining, but only indirectly. So it's not clear to me that this is something the union should have any say...

Professor Edward Zelinsky, a distinguished tax law expert at Cardozo Law School and author of The Origins of the Ownership Society, has a thoughtful and provocative Oxford University Press piece on Albert Pujols and his 10-year, $254 million contract. Zelinsky argues that Pujols indeed deserves what he is being paid and that he is not under-taxed. Here is an excerpt:* * * Pujols...

I recently posted the working draft of an essay reflecting on the recent NFL and NBA lockouts to SSRN, and thought that it might be of interest to some readers. The abstract for the essay is below:This essay analyzes the National Football League (“NFL”) and National Basketball Association (“NBA”) lockouts of 2011, focusing in particular on the role union dissolution played...

The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (“IFSA”) was created in 1987 by the Illinois General Assembly to create and reconstruct sports stadiums for professional teams in Illinois. The IFSA owns and operates U.S. Cellular Field and receives annual debt payments for bonds related to renovations of the stadium. In 2001, the IFSA also contributed to the renovations made to Soldier...

I speak with Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune about what to expect should Utah AG Mark Shurtleff sue the BCS, as he says he plans on doing within the next month or so. For additional commentary on the BCS, check out our past coverage.

While perusing the program for the upcoming American Economic Association annual meeting (Jan. 6-8) in Chicago, I noticed an interesting panel devoted to sports collective bargaining. Details are below:The Impact of Sports Collective Bargaining on Labor Relations in Society (Workshop) (J1) (Panel Discussion)Panel Moderator: Gabriel Gershenfeld, Cleveland Indians, and Michael Wasser...

Here's my new SI.com column on Floyd Mayweather pleading guilty to reduced charges for battering his ex-girlfriend. He'll get 90 days in jail; originally was facing 34 years in prison.

Child sexual assault has become the hot topic in the sports-and-law overlap, with allegations against several college football and basketball coaches, AAU officials, and most recently, a Hall of Fame sports writer Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News. One unifying theme is that many of these cases cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has run on most of...

I have a new column for SI.com on Sam Hurd's arrest on drug charges and his alleged list of clients, who reportedly include NFL players. Hope you can check it out.

Congrats to Peter Carfagna and Craig Nard, among others, for establishing the Great lakes Sports and Entertainment Law Academy, a summer program in Cleveland for law students interested in sports and entertainment law. It looks to be a terrific program. Here are the details: Great Lakes Sports and Entertainment Law AcademyMay 14 – June 3, 2012A joint program of: Center for Law...

In a new column for SI.com, I raise some questions of Joe Amendola's legal strategy in representing Jerry Sandusky.

Guest post from Dr. Anastasios Kaburakis, a professor at the John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University:After St. Louis’ beloved Cardinals lost Albert Pujols to the L.A. Angels last week, there was quite a discussion on how a small market like St. Louis can compete in intense, financially challenging times, and indeed in a cut-throat industry like sports. St. Louis ranks...

I recently had a chance to listen in on an iGaming Business-sponsored webinar about developments in New Jersey and more general topics related to the legality of sports wagering in the USA. Joe Brennan of iMEGA was the featured speaker. The recent state-wide vote in New Jersey has garnered a lot of attention. However, a quick perusal of my research file devoted to this issue revealed...

Provocative piece by Howard's PrawfsBlawg colleague and Florida State law professor Dan Markel (who is originally from one of the best hockey cities around, Toronto): The End of Hockey (Fighting).

I am so proud to be a Miami-Dade resident (although not a Marlins fan).

As the NBA lockout and the 2012 calendar year fade into the night, Yale Law School will be hosting the first panel discussion that takes stock of what has been the Year of The Lockout. On Monday December 12, the Yale Law and Business Society will host a panel discussion titled "Lockouts and Leverage: Lessons from the NFL and NBA Lockouts and New Collective Bargaining Agreements...

Very sad news last week in the sports law world, as former Boston College Law School sports law Professor Bob Berry passed away at 75. Marquette University Law School sports law Professor Matt Mitten shares the following with our readers: Sports Law Academic World Loses One of Its Heavy HittersBob Berry, a retired Boston College emeritus professor of law who was an internationally...

Back in April I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post that argued against the shorting, by the NCAA, of the evaluation period for men's basketball players. My friends at Harvard Law School's Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law asked me to turn that short piece into a law review article, which I have now done.While still being fine-tuned for January publication, I have...

Slate's weekly sports podcast "Hang Up and Listen" leads off this week with a discussion of the end of the NBA lockout. One of the points of discussion is the failure of the sports media to fully grasp and accurately cover the bargaining process. Not being experienced in how labor and litigation negotiations work, reporters fall for dramatic, tragic, and pessimistic...