From the Director: A visit from the "Most Interesting Man in Soccer" and looking ahead to Super Bowl
Dear Tulanians,
I hope you are all well. The Tulane Sports Law Program is designed to give our students unparalleled access to the sports industry and, with the return of the world’s biggest sporting event—the Super Bowl— to New Orleans in February, we are poised to take advantage of this special opportunity. We have been working closely with league and other leaders to launch multiple events during the lead-up, including a football leadership panel; a speaking event highlighting the incredible history of the New Orleans Saints within the civil rights movement (featuring former players); and a small business/nonprofit incubator hosted in partnership with our alum Kimberly Haynes’ (L'00) OMBI Group. We invite you all to join us for these unique events!
In early November, we had an incredible guest speaker, "Men in Blazers" podcast host and founder of the media network by the same name, Roger Bennett, who we all know as the "Most Interesting Man in Soccer." Bennett and I had a wonderful discussion about soccer's trajectory, his love of the sport, his evolution to become podcaster, author, filmmaker and sports personality, and much more.
Also in November, the Tulane Entertainment & Art Law Society (TEALS) launched the first Tulane Entertainment Negotiation Competition to great success, with over ten judges and ten teams competing for the championship - all records for an inaugural competition. This event, a brainchild of our Tulane Entertainment & Sports Law Conference, was closely modeled on our longstanding sports law negotiation competitions. Indeed, the student leadership of the TENC learned from their experience on the boards of our sports negotiation competitions. We are excited to add the TENC to our annual calendar of entertainment & sports events as we grow our interdisciplinary endeavors.
The Tulane Sports Law Society also hosted a full slate of events this fall, including the 8th annual Women in Sports Law Symposium and a speaker series event featuring junior Tulane Sports Law alumni. Tulane Sports Law students also continued their long-standing role as the writing & editing staff for the Sports Lawyer’s Association’s weekly and monthly newsletters, along with staffing the Sports Lawyer’s Journal, the premier academic publication in the field of sports law.
We also continued building our Tulane Sports Law Career Pathways program, newly launched last year. This fall we added our Career Pathways Roadmap series, a comprehensive list of opportunities we offer our students to immerse themselves in the sports industry during the academic year, whether through our national negotiation competitions, symposia & conferences, mentorship, and much more. Because we offer far more than any one student can tackle, the Roadmap serves as a “menu” of options to help our students tailor their efforts to their specific sports interests. The 2025 Career Pathways also included career panels featuring several of our alumni working in college sports, agencies, in-house counsel, and pro team front offices to give our students real-world insights into those careers.
In November, we held our latest meeting of the Tulane Sports Law Program Advisory Board. This year we added 10 new members, with the Board membership now reaching 38 Tulane Sports Law alumni including leaders from 12 different major league teams, some of the world’s largest sports agencies, global sports apparel brands, and much more. This group has been an incredible resource as we keep a close watch on today’s sports industry, to ensure our students are well-positioned to enter the ever-changing sports marketplace.
Beyond campus, we continued our exciting partnership with Major League Baseball through their Youth Academy program, with the Tulane Center for Sport hosting a summer educational series on name, image, and likeness. And, the Center for Sport continued its work as the lead educational partner of The Starting Block, an 18-month local program designed to teach high school students about sports industry careers, cultural exchange, and relationship building.
We are looking forward to another vibrant spring. Our four Tulane Sports Law competitions and Mardi Gras Moot Court all return, and our 8th annual Tulane Entertainment & Sports Law Conference is set for March 14-15, 2025. We hope to see you on campus soon!
Best regards,
Gabe Feldman
Sher Garner Professor of Sports Law and Paul and Abram B. Barron Professor of Law
Director, Tulane Sports Law Program
Co-Director, Tulane Center for Sport
Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance
