Tulane sports law competitions add soccer to annual lineup
Tulane Law School’s Sports Law Society was proud to host its long-standing annual professional sports arbitration and negotiation competitions, and one new competition in the sport of soccer. Each competition varies slightly in format, but center on mock contracts involving professional athletes in baseball, football, basketball, and international fútbol/soccer.
The 15th annual Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition was held virtually on January 19-21, 2022, led by co-chairs and current third-year Tulane Law students, Sharon DiPrinzio, Maxwell Martin, and Alyssa McCain. Thirty teams from schools across the country competed in rounds designed to mirror MLB’s formal arbitration format, making arguments over hypothetical contracts for MLB stars such as Shohei Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. Rounds were scored by judges from across the baseball industry, including MLB teams and MLBPA-certified agents. After numerous exciting rounds, the championship was awarded to Fordham University.
In addition to the competition rounds, the event also hosted an insightful panel, titled “TIBAC Presents: MLB Past, Present, and Future” and featuring baseball industry experts Jay Cohen (Baseball Specialist and Staff Attorney, Zuckerman Spaeder), Greg Dreyfuss (Director of Analytics and Baseball Operations, MLBPA), Rex Gary (Founder, Turner-Gary Sports; Attorney, Agent), Mark Feinsand (Executive Reporter, MLB.com), Marc Kligman (MLBPA Certified Agent, Attorney, Sports Law Professor), and Jay Reisinger (Partner, Reisinger Comber & Miller, LLC). These star panelists spoke on a range of baseball topics, from the impact of COVID-19 on 2021 arbitrations to career advice for students trying to break into the industry.
The 8th annual Tulane Football Negotiation Competition, also held virtually, took place over February 4-5, 2022, led by co-chairs and current 3L students, Schuyler Corbin, Jaime Price, and Jordyn Weiss. In this competition, student teams from 34 schools negotiated over mock contracts for real NFL players, including Von Miller and Chris Godwin.
Judges from 7 different NFL franchises, as well as NFLPA Certified Agents, helped narrow the field down to the championship round, which featured a close and exciting negotiation between teams from Villanova University and Chapman University over a mock contract for Green Bay Packers’ star wide receiver, Davante Adams. The round was streamed live on YouTube and the recording may be viewed here: 8th Annual Tulane Pro Football Negotiation Competition - Championship Round - YouTube. Judging the final round were Jackie Davidson of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Mike Disner of the Detroit Lions, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap, Khai Harley of the New Orleans Saints, Ari Nissim (L04) of Malka Sports, and Robert Simpson of the Denver Broncos, who declared Villanova the champion.
The 5th annual Tulane Pro Basketball Negotiation Competition, presented by the law firm of Winston & Strawn LLP, was held in-person at Tulane Law School on March 3-4, 2022. This event, led by board co-chairs and current 3L law students, Lee Bertrand, Noah Blum, Tracey Gant, and Stephen John, featured competitors from 35 different schools and 36 judges from every area of the basketball industry, including 11 different NBA teams, certified agents, the NBA itself, and prominent media members. The event featured head-to-head negotiations over real NBA players such as Miles Bridges and Jalen Brunson. The competition culminated in a 4-team championship round during which each finalist team entered a separate negotiation over a hypothetical Collin Sexton contract against the same judge- past board member, Austin Robert (L ’20). After detailed negotiations, the judges scored the University of California- Berkeley team as the champion.
The inaugural Tulane International Fútbol Negotiation Competition was held virtually on March 24-25, 2022 and led by founding student board members Caroline Kaniff, Callie DeCort, Larenz Jones, and John Turner.
The competition featured eight student teams engaging in mock negotiations over two types of contracts in international fútbol, i.e. soccer. The competition began with a preliminary round in which competing teams “pitched” the potential purchase of a player—Brenden Aaronson— to hypothetical team ownership. In the main competition beginning March 24, teams first negotiated over mock contracts for the sale and transfer of players between different clubs— distinct to the world of international soccer— such as Leeds United and FC Red Bull Salzburg. In later rounds, teams negotiated over a player’s hypothetical contract with a club for wages, with one side representing the player’s agent and the other representing the club.
After many exciting rounds, California Western and Villanova met in the championship round to negotiate a mock player contract between FC Barcelona and free agent Franck Kessié, with the judges scoring Villanova as the winner.
