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S2E1 - Jeffrey Kessler - Now It's Legal with Jim Cavale
235 Plays5 months ago
Jeffrey Kessler is Co-Executive Chairman of Winston & Strawn and one of the world’s leading sports law, antitrust and trial lawyers. He's litigated some of the most high-profile sports-antitrust cases, including securing a unanimous victory for classes of Division I college football and basketball athletes in their antitrust litigation against the NCAA's compensation restrictions. Jeffrey's been recognized as “Litigator of the Week” by Am Law and a “Litigation Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal.
Jeffrey joins Now It's Legal to discuss his longstanding career in sports law, as well as his involvement and victory in the NCAA antitrust litigation.
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About Now It's Legal
In July 2021, NIL forever changed the trajectory of college athletics. It’s been a long time coming as the NCAA has long needed changes like NIL, the transfer portal, revenue sharing and other benefits for college athletes.
We introduce to you the Now It’s Legal podcast. Join us as we discuss the industry that holds the hearts of millions of fans who want to understand where its trajectory is heading. We are talking to those who are invested in and affected by NIL including: Former and current college athletes, presidents and head coaches, broadcasters and media personalities, investors and more. This is just the beginning of NIL and what it means for the future of college athletics.
Host Jim Cavale is a former college athlete and entrepreneur who has become an advocate for young athletes across the country. In 2017, he created the INFLCR app that allowed athletes to build their brand on social media, and in 2021, evolved into the NIL management technology for more than 100,000 athletes across 200 college athletic programs. INFLCR has since been acquired by sports tech titan, Teamworks.
In 2023, Jim founded Athletes.org which which is the players association for college athletes to negotiate the best terms for their college athletics experience. AO provides its member athletes with a free membership, empowering them with a voice, on demand support, and group licensing income in the same ways that professional league associations do for their member athletes.
Tune in to a new episode every Wednesday and join in on the conversation on Instagram with @nowitslegalpod and @jimcavale.
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Transcript
Introduction & Season Overview
00:00:11
Speaker
All right. All right. We're back. Another season of Now It's Legal. And we've got a lot of fun guests coming up on our episodes throughout fall 2024. So much going on in college athletics, the house settlement, um and revenue sharing. We'll start less than a year from now in college athletics.
00:00:32
Speaker
which means that college athletes starting next year are going to get billions of dollars per year over the next 10 years to be a player at the school they choose to go to. Now, you might be wondering, I've never explained this before, but this show is called Now It's Legal because that's what a lot of coaches have told me NIL really stands for. In my conversations throughout the past decade with college football, basketball coaches especially, I talk about NIL and collectives and pay for play and how NIL is being used to attract athletes ah to a school and, of course, now revenue sharing with the House
Understanding 'Now It's Legal' & NIL Implications
00:01:06
Speaker
settlement.
00:01:06
Speaker
And a lot of coaches will say, you know, NIL really stands for, it really stands for Now It's Legal, because a lot of schools have been paying players under the table for years, and now it's just out in the open. And so Now It's Legal is meant to be a show to bring the best thought leaders, whether it's athletes, former athletes, coaches, athletic directors, commissioners, all kinds of folks that are working on college athletics from different angles, to be able to talk about the new era that's upon us in college athletics.
00:01:37
Speaker
And so with this conversation today, I'm really excited because we have Jeffrey Kessler, who's one of the lead attorneys in the House settlement. Now remember, the House settlement is actually a consolidation of multiple cases, House, Carter, Hubbard. They have to do with revenue sharing of all sorts, broadcast revenue sharing, NIL,
00:01:54
Speaker
um But Jeffrey Kussler is a guy that's been working on this for about a decade. um Him and Steve Berman have been really attacking the antitrust liabilities of the NCAA and the schools on behalf of the athletes for about a decade in the college realm. But Jeffrey's been doing this for it decades, really for 30 years when it comes to pro sports.
00:02:17
Speaker
him and our lead attorney at athletes dot.org, Jim Quinn, have won some of the most major cases for players in the NFL and BAMOB against those leagues to help them have economic equity. And in this interview, you're going to hear Jeffrey talk about the economic equity steps that have been made by the House settlement. Is it perfect? No. Could it be better? Yes.
00:02:39
Speaker
But is it a huge transformational step that could help the things that have not been addressed become addressed and finally get athletes to the table to have a partnership with their schools? Absolutely.
Guest Introduction: Jeffrey Kessler & House Settlement
00:02:51
Speaker
And you're going to hear from Jeffrey on all those things and more in this episode. Now it's late.
00:02:58
Speaker
Well, Jeffrey, first off, thanks a lot for making time. It's great to be able to talk to you about all that's going on in kind of college athletics. um I think we'll start with just how you got involved in the House case and what eventually became the settlement. So I was counseled with Steve Berman in the Alston case.
Development and Goals of the House Case
00:03:23
Speaker
and the Alston case, you may remember, went to the Supreme Court. I actually argued that case. While Alston was pending, Steve filed the House case. I actually was of the view that it was better to get through the Supreme Court before starting the House case, but Steve made the call and he turned out to be right.
00:03:54
Speaker
and he brought that case first. After we won Allston, Steve and I joined up again and became co-counsel in the House litigation, which really and in many, many ways was a follow-up litigation to the victory that we achieved in the Supreme Court in Allston.
Settlement's Impact on Athlete Compensation
00:04:18
Speaker
So for you guys with Hubbard and Carter also going on, it just came to a head and this is how the settlement kind of had an impetus that you put together? Yes, so welcome. Steve and I have been at this fight for more than a decade.
00:04:38
Speaker
And our goal has always been to use the antitrust laws to vindicate the rights of the athletes and create a fairer and more just system in college sports for those
College vs. Professional Sports: Economic Rights
00:04:53
Speaker
athletes. So we've had a series of cases. ah After Alston, we had Hubbard, we had House, eventually we had Carter, but they all in the end were leading to the settlement that's now been reached, which is to really do two things. One, get fair damages for the athletes in the past to the extent that we can. And second, and in my view, even more importantly, transform the system
00:05:29
Speaker
So that going forward, future generations of athletes ah can have a fair place in which they can compete, in which they can earn some of the revenues that they generate and be treated fairly.
00:05:48
Speaker
Now, you said you've been at this for 10 years. That's this
Settlement Benefits & Process
00:05:52
Speaker
situation. But there's been similar situations at the pro level that you've been a part of for the past few decades. um What makes the pro leagues work?
00:06:02
Speaker
So, yes, long before I got involved in college sports, I've been representing the athletes in the NFLPA and in the NBAPA and in the Major League Baseball Players Association and others. And so I've been involved in creating and helping to negotiate and putting in place the systems in those sports.
00:06:27
Speaker
The key to those sports, interestingly, was that in basketball and football, the same process of antitrust litigation.
00:06:42
Speaker
became very important to the players in establishing their economic rights and actually ah unions built from that utilizing the power of the antitrust laws. ah And in some ways that may be the long-term scenario for college sports as well. We've used the antitrust laws to it change this system and get the rights of the athletes established. In the future, we'll have to see what develops as to whether or not ah you know you know this will develop with unions or other groups bargaining for them. But that we we put the foundation in place to provide those key critical legal protections.
00:07:34
Speaker
And what you're describing really is a partnership between the players and whatever league it is, right? Ultimately, there is a sharing of revenues.
00:07:46
Speaker
Right? So so in in that sense, there's an economic partnership. ah But what I would also say is that the athletes' interest and the interest of the of the the people operating the sports, whether it's college or it's in the and NBA, the NFL,
00:08:09
Speaker
are never completely the same because it's still in the end opposite sides of a negotiating coin. But yes, and if you're sharing revenues together, then you have a mutual interest in seeing the sports grow and thrive. And that then becomes a bond, if you will, a common interest between those who produce the sports and those who provide the incredible athletic services that make the sports so popular.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yep. Yep. Okay. So going back to the settlement, you talked about how this is the beginning of a transformation for this industry. Give us your thoughts on like why this settlement is the best route for all sides, including the athletes. So
Settlement Payment Structure
00:09:03
Speaker
the critical thing about this settlement is first and most importantly, it provides immediate relief in changing the whole system into a model in which billions of dollars of revenue will be shared. Had we continued to litigate
00:09:26
Speaker
You know, I believe we would have won, but I'm not naive. The NCAA and the conferences could have kept fighting. They could have appealed. ah They could have imposed new restrictions that we'd have to then sue all over again. In other words, that this could have been years more if we didn't settle ah with uncertain legal twists and turns if we didn't go this way. And that would mean years of athletes would pass through the schools without the benefits of change. So settling has the benefit of bringing change now. So that's number one. Number two, it achieves this settlement, what I believe to have been the fundamental goals of this litigation, which was number one, to provide
00:10:24
Speaker
fair damages to the athletes in the past. We've got one of the largest antitrust damage settlements in history. All the cases together, it's almost $3 billion. dollars That's a huge sum of money to be able to distribute to the athletes. And you know again, as as a compromise, as a settlement number, one of the biggest in his history. Going forward, it achieved a system While it is a compromise, every settlement is a compromise, that dramatically advances the athletes in a few basic ways. First,
00:11:01
Speaker
It allows athletes to be compensated directly by their schools to a tune of what we believe will be approximately at least $20 billion dollars in new payments and benefits over the next 10 years. It could be more, could be less. It's because it's a system. You have to see what competition yields, but we think it's gonna be at least $20 billion dollars in new benefits, while at the same time,
00:11:32
Speaker
We are preserving all the existing benefits so that you don't count against that 20 billion, the scholarships they're already receiving, or the health benefits they're already receiving, or other things, so that together, if you look across Division I,
00:11:50
Speaker
If the system works the way we hope, the total payout across Division I is going to be close or around 50% of the total Division I revenues, because the number grows with over the years with the revenues. And if you get around 50%, you're getting the equivalent of what the pros get from their sports. so So having achieved that going forward, it seems like an awfully good deal.
Compliance Strategies for Schools
00:12:21
Speaker
Now, would it be better to not have any cap at all? Yes, but we'd still be litigating if we weren't willing to agree now to this comp.
00:12:32
Speaker
and And of course, this settlement doesn't solve all issues for the players, right? This is an economic settlement because it's an antitrust case. It's all we can address through antitrust. you know We can't address health benefits. We can't address working conditions, you know hours, things like that. That's not part of this settlement.
00:12:58
Speaker
But in terms of the basic injustice of not letting those revenues be shared, of not letting these athletes compete the way they can compete, those issues will make dramatic progress under this settlement in a way that I think is going to transform the lives of many athletes.
00:13:20
Speaker
So when you look at the timeline, we obviously just had the filing. Now we're moving into a phase that has some fixed dates and days in between spelled out in the motion. ah Give an overview for people who might not fully understand the timeline and when this could actually be fully approved by Judge Wilkin. Right, so September 5th, there will be a hearing by Judge Welcome to consider preliminary approval. Preliminary approval is a first decision by the judge that this settlement is fair enough, it comes within the reasonable bounds of being a good settlement for the class, that it can go out for a notice and comment period
00:14:09
Speaker
where other class members could express their views if they want to or other comments could be made and also for an opt-out period because remember there are two parts of the case. There's the damages and then there's the future relief.
00:14:24
Speaker
For the damages part, under the legal system, if somebody wants to opt out and pursue their own damages claim, not part of this case, they can do that. It means you don't recover the damages here and you have your rights to pursue a damages case on your own.
00:14:43
Speaker
ah But if you don't want to do that, then you just have to be quiet. If you don't opt out, you'll be part of the class, and then you will receive the damages that are there.
00:14:55
Speaker
the approval period for final approval for notice and opt out will be set by the court on September 5th. It'll probably be three to four months. The exact dates will be set. So if we're meeting in September 5th, you know, I'm thinking that there will be a final approval hearing in the first part of next year, ah probably when you get everything done. So, you know, maybe February next year or something like that. ah And between now and then, we will have calculations done
00:15:34
Speaker
of how much each class member is likely to get. So people will be able to go on a website and see what their damages will be. We don't have that up yet, but we will have that up ah that everyone will be able to know what their payout will be. The payout will be over 10 years. That was also a compromise because, as you can imagine,
00:15:58
Speaker
the NCAA's position in the conferences was that paying out almost $3 billion dollars in just one year was going to be prohibitively disruptive to the schools and not let them be able to smoothly function and you know continue their programs in the way that they need to. So we agreed to a payout over 10 years, ah and the new injunction, the new system is in place for at least 10 years. So those things go hand in hand together in this element.
Impact on Non-revenue Sports
00:16:34
Speaker
And it will go into effect for the 25-26 academic year. That's when all the new benefits will be there, assuming it gets final approval by the court.
00:16:49
Speaker
Okay, so from the injunctive class standpoint, everything starts next summer. um I always say I predict 70 or so schools fully fund the 22 million in revenue sharing, all the power conference schools, and then a handful of other schools that have the financial means and want to make up the delta that they have between them and the power conferences.
00:17:11
Speaker
um So that's about $1.5 billion dollars that'll be paid out starting next summer over the next 12 months. And then there's escalators, right? It goes up to $33 million by year 10. Yeah, so again, it's going to turn with the revenues. we What we have is we set the system for three years at a time. In that three years, we look at their revenues, and this is based on their revenues.
00:17:36
Speaker
And we calculate the pool number, which is going to be 22% of the revenues of the of the power five schools plus Notre Dame, basically the schools that earn in all the revenue. That sets the number for the first year. Then it goes up 4% every year for the first three year period.
00:17:59
Speaker
Then there's a reset. After three years, we look back at the revenues again, and we see we have a new cap number. So if the revenues go up a lot, it goes up even higher in terms of that. We also have the right under the system if a new huge television deal comes through. Let's say that transforms everything. We could do a reset earlier. We don't have to wait.
00:18:24
Speaker
the the three years, we're allowed to do two resets um so that if the 4% looks to be inadequate to us because there's just been a gigantic TV deal that was going to push everything up by, you know, 6% or 8% or so 10%, we could do a reset to get that money earlier. So again, ah we based our our estimate ah twenty billion of billion in benefits on everything going up 4% a year for the 10 years. My own view is that it's going to go up higher in all likelihood because of the increasing importance of sports as a broadcasting product. And as long as the market stays that way, you're going to see those revenues continue to increase just like you're seeing that in the professional sports.
00:19:15
Speaker
yeah Absolutely. And this is going to force schools to have to think about how to generate more revenue more than ever before to be able to cover these costs, which they're doing. And we all know that. I don't know if you saw Clemson's announcement, but Clemson yeah has now set up a ah basically a for-profit company to manage their revenue growth and and their development of funds for NIL so that they could better compete for the athletes in terms of that, yes. Okay, so that's a perfect segue. You've created the guardrails with this settlement. Now there's a ah ah highway to drive on for the schools and there's things they can and can't do, um but they all can drive a different car at different speeds and different ways.
00:20:00
Speaker
yeah so um I think it's best to go into the schools and you know What's the best way for the schools to approach? The setting of these terms because they all can do it different ways. So there's no one best way It's it's gonna be that we created a competitive system you combine this with the transfer portal and you combine this with the opportunity to recruit athletes and Now coming out of school, each school is going to have to design its own philosophy, which by the way, it's then going to market it to athletes. It's then going to say, here's how we do it. Here are the benefits we provide.
00:20:44
Speaker
And it may it's going to vary. ah you know I think schools with you know with more revenues are going to take one approach. Schools with lesser revenues will take a different approach. Some schools may favor some sports over others because that's where they compete more. You know, like, you know, I mean, if you're a school like, you know, Ohio State, you're competing in everything, right? But there are some schools that may say, you know, we can't compete in everything, but we have like a national hockey team. We're gonna make sure our hockey players are well taken care with their benefits. Or we have a national women's volleyball team.
00:21:28
Speaker
And we're going to make sure those women or a national women's gymnastics team, we're going to make sure those women are treated the best in the nation, should because that's how we're going to be able to, you know, keep and attract those athletes.
00:21:42
Speaker
ah So I think it's going to vary school to school. But what they really do need to do, and I think Clemson is the right idea, is that they need to study this and think about it. It's not going to be the same. The world has changed. ah And, you know, that's where you're going to see. And there are also there are many revenues that could benefit athletes that don't count against a pool number. So for example, I'll give you a perfect example. Some of school could say, you know, I've got a lot of revenues. I can increase but the number of Austin educational benefits I give, like graduate school scholarships or internships or study abroad or equipment, because none of that counts
00:22:33
Speaker
against the pool. So those are additional things I can offer ah beyond just you know the pool number. If you increase Alston cash benefits for academic achievement awards, those are capped at $2.5 million dollars in the pool. So if you want to give that to all your athletes at your school, maybe you're giving out $5 million dollars a year in those achievements awards. Two and a half won't count against the pool. So there are lots of creative ways for schools who really have the resources that want to go out
00:23:13
Speaker
can take care of their athletes and benefit, you know especially those who I hope will you know benefit you know also sports that are non-revenue sports. They can do that through a variety of ways. I'll give you another example. ah new sco They're no longer scholarship limits.
00:23:32
Speaker
So a lot of the non-revenue sports have had severe scholarship ah limits. They've had what's called equivalency rules, and you and even good athletes on those teams could only get partial scholarships. If you're a swimmer, ah you know if you're a soccer player, you know you're only getting partial scholarships.
00:23:53
Speaker
Under this system, everyone can get a full scholarship. And I expect a lot of the schools or resources are going to provide full scholarships to those
Partnerships with Athletes for Implementation
00:24:03
Speaker
athletes. And again, those new benefits only get capped at two and a half million dollars against the pool. So you can give out a lot more than that and new scholarships in terms of those non-revenue sports, and none of it will count against the pool.
00:24:19
Speaker
above the two and a half million. So there's a lot that can be done here by schools who really want to be creative, who really want to take care of their athletes. So that's, I think that's really the the things that schools have to do. They have to develop their strategy.
00:24:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's four things when I look at this that schools have to figure out. Number one, are they going to fully fund it? Number two, ah how are they going to split up the money per sport? And I would include scholarship and benefits in that, Alston, all that. Number three, ah how are they going to split up the money per athlete? Because they don't have front offices that are going to negotiate 500 different deals with 500 different athletes.
00:24:57
Speaker
And number four, what are the terms in the contracts that they put together with the athletes? And so I'm going to go back to something we talked about earlier, which is the beauty of the partnership that athletes have in the pro levels with their leagues, is the school level where that partnership begins and does it behoove the schools to not only prevent further litigation,
00:25:21
Speaker
but also to inform and educate their athletes on how this is going to work to actually involve them in that negotiation and those decisions. So this is a decision for each school we make. It really is at the school level. And, you know, again, you know, they're going to have to decide what's best for them, right? If if I were an athletic director,
00:25:45
Speaker
Right? I want to partner with my athletes. I want to hear their views. I would want to include them, you know, in the process to find the way ah to do that, ah you know, to hear their voice, ah you know, and for for two reasons. it's One, because if you had do that, you're going to make your school much more attractive.
00:26:11
Speaker
to those athletes. ah Two, it's like the right thing to do, right? you know youre you These are benefits you're giving to the athletes and you're dividing up. And so you should have that interest. And three, if you do that,
00:26:23
Speaker
you're less likely you know you know for somebody to sue you over Title IX or something else in the future if you're if you're getting the views of your athletes and you're getting buy-in and you're getting consensus. So again, that's up to them. Again, our settlement doesn't require them.
00:26:45
Speaker
to do anything like that, but it permits all of that. And I think the smart ADs, the ones who are ahead of the curve, the ones who are thinking about the future, are going to know that's the way to go in terms of that.
00:26:58
Speaker
You know, it's interesting because as you know, I worked for the past seven years with the schools through my software company influencer and then Teamworks. So I have a lot of close friends who are athletic directors and I've kept in touch with them over the last year since we started athletes dot.org.
00:27:15
Speaker
And it's almost like a daily survey when I'm talking to different ADs because some completely agree with what you just said. And that's why we're talking. They believe athletes dot.org can organize their athletes and help them educate their athletes so that they can then have athletes be team reps for each team and sit at a table and vote on a deal. And then there's other athletic directors that think that that's like the furthest thing from what they would ever consider doing. So it's a pretty mixed bag.
00:27:44
Speaker
The nice thing about this system is competition will ultimately decide outcomes. And so if when if you work with those forward-looking athletic directors to create a system that is really satisfying for the athletes, well, guess what? The ones who don't like that will either change or be changed, right? Because because when they're competing with that other school,
00:28:12
Speaker
to attract someone in the transfer portal, or they're competing in that other school you know for a recruit, that recruit's gonna say, I'm going to the school that respects our views. I'm going to the school where they've set this up, right? And so so that's how I think, you know again, one of the great things about this system that I think we put into place, it really does heighten.
00:28:34
Speaker
the competition that's going to be there. and that And that ultimately you're going to get an outcome ah where, yeah as I said, you either go along or you're not going to be part of it, right? And so, yeah, you'll get some who will resist at first, but that's not going to last a long time if they want their programs to be successful.
00:28:54
Speaker
Yup, there's the whole crossing the chasm, ah you know, chart and there's early adopters and there's laggards. but Look, ah like I'd say the same thing here where we were negotiating the settlement.
00:29:06
Speaker
There clearly were schools and ADs who saw that this settlement was the way to go very early. And there were schools and ADs who we heard indirectly through the conferences at the nca werere really resisted and And I expect that some of that is reflecting itself in the views you're hearing you know you know from the ADs you're talking to. But at the end of the day,
00:29:32
Speaker
They all agreed, okay, this is the best this is you know the best alternative for for college sports. So we got the settlement. And I think in the end of the day, Even those naysayers will eventually, as I said, either they'll change or someone will change them. You know, it's funny. On that note, before we move to the next question, I think one of the common denominators with the folks who have pushed back is they're in ah their state schools and they have a board led sometimes by the governor.
00:30:04
Speaker
And there's politics in this, right? This is because it looks a little bit like collective bargaining and unionization and doing things to pay athletes that have never been done before. There's some politics to play into it that the AD and even presidents sometimes aren't in control of.
Unresolved Legal Matters Beyond the Settlement
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. But in the end of the day, even if you're in a state, you know, which is not particularly pro union or pro association or pro worker or pro athletes or anything like that, the end of the day,
00:30:33
Speaker
You want your school to be able to win, right? so So we'll see what ultimately determines the outcome ah in terms of that. Was SAC ever brought up as a mechanism for athletes to have a voice in how this works at the school level? The Student Athlete Advisory Committee that the NCAA has at each school and nationally? They really played no role. they they they did you know That was the NCAA's choice, right? you know they but was they were not We never heard of them participating on their side and we never had any discussions about SAC.
00:31:08
Speaker
So going back to the litigation topic, what would you say to the people who question that this settlement will prevent further litigation? So look, I think this settlement, if it is finally approved, will resolve all past antitrust claims, right? Because legally, that's what it does. Unless people opt out and continue to file damage claims, I would not opt out of this case, but you know I don't think there could be a large number of opt-outs, so I don't think there's gonna be a lot of of opt-out. But theoretically, there could be you know opt-out litigation. you know That's for people to decide individually, but I don't think it's gonna be worthwhile for you know for most or if any people to opt-out. Going forward, okay,
00:31:59
Speaker
You know, a lot depends, you know, on the schools, right? Again, you know, as to what will happen, you know, this, you know, this case doesn't resolve issues about Title IX, right? And so, you know, that's something that's going to have to be worked out over time. By the way, that'd be true if we didn't settle.
00:32:17
Speaker
Well, we did settle. There are there are unresolved issues about Title IX, right? ah There are also unresolved issues on other things, right? There is there is a ah case called Johnson going on, ah you know, other making claims into the Fair Labor Standards Act. Our case doesn't release those claims or change those claims so you know that case will go on right you know and you know there's a there's another case called choi that's suing over the ivy league's rule uh our case doesn't resolve that right you know there there are some uh there's an existing case uh about uh
00:33:03
Speaker
whether or not tennis players and other athletes like that could get prize money and lose their eligibility. There's a case I saw just filed from hockey players in Canada as to whether or not. so so no So I guess I would say this is not going to resolve everything on the legal front for the NCAA. It's an antitrust case about their compensation rules.
00:33:32
Speaker
It will hopefully bring stability to those set of issues. But there are obviously other issues that this case does you know does not resolve and will
Settlement Implementation Timeline & Athlete Entitlements
00:33:45
Speaker
continue. yeah but But is this going to be the most dramatic step forward for the NCAA to get him to a stable situation? Absolutely, I believe that.
00:33:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this is something that the NCAA, the schools, the conferences have said for over a century that they would never do. I mean, there's people on record who lead current schools and they said they'd retire if this happened. So this is a huge step. and Oh, yeah. we say that We had a case.
00:34:15
Speaker
where I won't embarrass her but the chancellor of one prominent school testified in the Alston case that if this happened their school with you know like change to division three well guess what they're not changing they're not changing to division three.
00:34:37
Speaker
yeah
00:34:39
Speaker
um what what is If you're an AD or really if you're a commissioner or even the NCAA, how do you stop all these cases outside of revenue sharing, which is what this is about, the health and safety stuff, the scholarship stuff, all the stuff you mentioned? How do you stop all this? Again, we'll have to see what evolves. i said Again, I said, as I told you, bro, I think talking to athletes, you know you know you know to groups of athletes, you know organizations. i think you know I think that's one way to get to a solution. you know They got other cases that they have to you know they have to figure out Title IX. There may be guidance from that that comes out of the government. there isn't That doesn't exist yet. But eventually, those Title IX issues will have to get resolved. um So there's a lot to do. So I don't pretend to have a panacea.
00:35:35
Speaker
for everything that plagues the desk of an AD. But I think their first focus should be on how to make this system work for their schools and their athletes. And you know and then think about you know a lot of this you could avoid by being proactive. right they're like like Everybody knew that there were fundamental problems in this system. If you if you've got any AD,
00:36:03
Speaker
honestly to speak to you about what was going on, about how the athletes were treated and what was done. Some of them said it publicly, but they all would say it privately, you know, this can't continue this way. And so if you proactively take those steps on your own, you know, you can avoid those issues, right? There's nothing to stop a school right now, you know, from saying that, hey,
00:36:31
Speaker
you know I'm going to provide more benefits than I'm allowed to provide ah you know you know for you know for health and welfare. right you know for you know I'm going to cut down you know the requirements on my teams ah that you know that interfere with their ability you know to you know to to pursue their education fully at the same time. I'm going to do a better job of supporting my women's teams as ah if I'm required to do so. And even if I'm not required to do so by title nine, there's a lot of things they could do on their own proactively and avoid a lot of legal disputes. And they probably could learn what those things are.
00:37:14
Speaker
by having an organization of their athletes be able to get informed and speak about what they want and ask for what they want. Finding out what their athletes want, their priorities would certainly be something that you would think they'd want to do.
00:37:30
Speaker
Well, Jeffrey, I really appreciate you making time um for us. We know that you have a lot going on. um Appreciate the work and the dedication you put in over the past decade plus in this industry, but also ah throughout your career um for athletes. Thank you. The one last thing I'd say, Teddy.
00:37:48
Speaker
athletes who are watching achieve this is that is that if if you wonder what you're entitled to or what you might get under the settlement, just be a little patient. The website will go up hopefully after September 5th if we get our preliminary approval. There also will be notices sent. The schools are giving us ah ah last known mailing addresses, email addresses.
00:38:14
Speaker
So we will be reaching out to you to tell you about the settlement, ah about that. But if for some reason you don't get that, because maybe the school doesn't have your address anymore or you're no longer in touch, um then you could go to the website and you'll be able to find that information about yourself. um And also, the damages part of the case basically goes back ah to the 2016-17 season. We couldn't go back before then.
00:38:47
Speaker
because of what's called the statute of limitations.
Episode Recap & Future Episode Teaser
00:38:49
Speaker
So for you older college athletes, I'm sorry, we legally couldn't go back any further. But if you're 16, 17 forward, you might qualify for a claim depending on what sport you played and how many years, et cetera, what schools you went to. And this is all Division I I'm talking about. Obviously, we don't have a case for but Division II or Division III or anything like that.
00:39:14
Speaker
Well, thanks again, Jeffrey. I really appreciate that. And we look forward to talking again as this thing evolves.
00:39:23
Speaker
Great stuff from Jeffrey, and he talked about it. This is transformational for college athletics. Something the school said they'd never do is going to happen starting next year. They're going to pay athletes directly, but so many decisions to be made. Are they going to fund it as a school? If they do fully fund it, how are they going to split up the money per sport? How are they going to split up the money per athlete without a front office that can negotiate individual deals with all of their athletes?
00:39:48
Speaker
A lot of things need to be figured out. The contract terms between the athlete and the school. A lot of liability and how that's done. And of course, further litigation that can still happen. We want you to continue to tune in to Now It's Legal throughout this second season. We're going to have a lot of great episodes. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Podcasts, whichever you prefer.
00:40:11
Speaker
And of course, follow us on Instagram because we always share clips from new episodes so you can get to know who the interviewee is, who the guest is, and then go and watch it. And so make sure you go to Now It's Legal Pod on Instagram and follow us as well. I'm Jim Cavale. For everyone on our team at athletes dot.org, this has been another episode of Now It's Legal. We'll see you a again soon.