S12. The Creeping Professionalism of Major College Sports

This course meets 3 times.

For many years, avid college sports fans have lamented the evolving shape of big-time football and basketball, driven by the insatiable quest for billions of dollars of television revenue. But over the past few years, several major changes threaten to convert big-time college sports into a near professional model and in the process destroy many of its unique traditions. Waves of athletic conference realignment and consolidation (driven by dollars) have eliminated traditional regional rivalries, and virtually eliminated the PAC-12 Conference. The college football playoff is expanding. NIL (name, image, likeness) payments are funneled legally to players through booster networks --some can earn more in college than they will in the pros. Liberal transfer rules now allow players to freely move among colleges and cut favorable NIL deals. The notion of a “student-athlete” remaining at a college for four years has become archaic. Unionization of college sports is on the horizon. And the NCAA has failed as a regulatory body. This course will examine these issues and ask the question: will the overseers of big-time college sports ultimately kill the goose that laid the golden egg? 

John S. Ross, III (Jack) holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, and practiced law for 20 years in Washington, D.C. He served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, and has taught numerous courses on constitutional law and other topics in the WISE program. Jack also facilitates the WISE Supreme Court Special Interest Group.