Congrats to the ⁦@UARKLaw⁩ Class of 2023 and many thanks for the opportunity to encourage them to be the difference that makes a difference in the lives of those who are victims of social injustice and unconstitutional legislation. ⚖️ nwa.pressreader.com/article/…

“These universities operate like a Star Chamber.” Great, in-depth reporting by @Williams_Justin on the ways that internal university investigations differ from those done by public companies.

Why are athletic directors becoming “fall guys”?, as @Brett_McMurphy suggests. Board chairs and presidents who think they are experts on college athletics - but have zero experience or qualifications - are now the single biggest existential threat to athletic directors. I’ve observed this scenario as an insider three times in the past year. There’s always a bold statement about the suits in the ivory tower planning to create a new “modern” plan for athletics, and thus far, those plans have been a dud.

Lawyers who are new to the profession should watch this clip of an NCAA lawyer as a reminder that dodging the judge’s question by rambling on without answering the question is the fastest way to lose credibility with the Court. The correct answer would have been “No, your Honor. There’s no proof of that. [That’s just an excuse the NCAA made up.]” Just kidding. You should leave out the bracketed part. It’s okay to have an unexpressed thought. 😉

Razorbacks get a shoutout from @SECShorts. 😩😂

Hotty Toddy! Amen.

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For the record, I didn’t “rat out” Lane about anything. I sent Lane a copy of my comments to ESPN for his approval and said I would delete any part of them that he wasn’t comfortable with or all of them. He replied via text and asked me to rewrite the part where I quoted his text and inadvertently left out the part about Nick Saban and gave me the exact language to use. Lane has a great sense of humor, even about himself, and I think he knew the parts of my comments that are receiving so much attention today would be really funny. And they are. 😂

“On Feb. 12, the Chambliss injunction hearing unfolded within a county courthouse in Pittsboro, Mississippi — population 157. Mars arrived in true southern style: He climbed out of a pickup truck driven by Byars. He scanned the scene around him. The courthouse represented the lone modern building in the vicinity. A dilapidated shack sat across the black asphalt street, its wooden porch sunken from the weight of dozens of rusting appliances. … ‘The nearest restaurant was a barbecue joint that doubles as a tanning salon,’ Mars said with a laugh.” 😂

"I can save you $33 and lots of reading time by summing up the book this way," Kiffin wrote to Mars in a text message, which was shared with ESPN. "Old unnamed sources say Lane used to argue with Saban, drink alcohol and hang out with hot women. New unnamed sources say Lane gets along with Saban, doesn't drink alcohol, but still hangs out with hot women." Great story by @Mark_Schlabach on ESPN about Lane. espn.com/college-football/st…

Some examples of what makes Lane “just different”: using ChatGPT for legal advice, his changed relationship with Saban, and hot women. 😂 espn.com/college-football/st…

At this rate, beginning at 7:30 pm on Saturday, the six interstate highways in Mississippi will look like a scene from “Fast and Furious.” 🚙💨

A prominent attorney. Texts with Lane Kiffin. Courtroom prayers. All of it led to Trinidad Chambliss’ Oxford return. On the saga that brought the star QB back to Ole Miss ahead of one of the most meaningful games in school history. foxsports.com/stories/colleg…

Context matters. Typically, when a plaintiff’s lawyer put a summons and complaint in the hands of a process server, it is the process server’s job to find and serve the defendant wherever he can find them. If the defendant isn’t home or doesn’t answer the door when the process server tries to serve them at their residence, the process server usually defaults to serving the defendant as they are going to or leaving their place of work (in this case the LSU football facility) where the defendant can’t hide behind a locked door.

The thing I can't get past is that Section 118 is probably the piece of the PCSA that institutions value most, and the way it is drafted makes it the piece most vulnerable to challenge. The value is straightforward: antitrust protection for specified compensation, eligibility, transfer, and enforcement rules. For presidents and boards managing athletics budgets, the ability to rely on common financial limits and to expect competitors to follow them is enormously consequential. Three potential problems. The private-delegation question. Congress can create an antitrust exemption; Alston said so expressly. The harder question is whether the arrangement gives economically interested private organizations governmental power over athletes without adequate public supervision. In FCC v. Consumers' Research (2025), the Court upheld private assistance because the agency retained real decision-making authority. In National Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Ass'n v. Black, 178 F.4th 224 (5th Cir. 2026), the Fifth Circuit held HISA's enforcement provisions facially unconstitutional for want of supervision, while agreeing that the 2022 amendment had cured the rulemaking defect. Rulemaking survived; enforcement did not. That is the axis Section 118 sits on, because the PCSA writes its restraints into the statute and delegates no rulemaking at all. The exposure is Section 118(d), which lets the association designate an enforcement entity under its own control. The defense is real. Private nondelegation has never been applied to a pure immunity, and removing a cause of action is not conferring governmental power. That describes the Sports Broadcasting Act and McCarran-Ferguson. HISA's problem was that the Authority's rules were federal law, binding on nonmembers. Whether that answer holds turns on the surrounding architecture: restraints codified in federal law, state law preempted under Section 121, enforcement run by an entity the association controls. That is a really consequential dispute to leave for litigation after schools have organized their finances around the statute. Three cert petitions from the Fifth Circuit case are now pending, including the Solicitor General's, so the governing law may be rewritten this Term while institutions are mid-restructuring. The exemption's boundaries. Even if Section 118 survives, courts must decide what falls inside it. A conference adopts a lower compensation ceiling, or sanctions a member under a broad membership obligation. Is that implementation of a protected provision or an additional restraint? A plaintiff can litigate that for years without ever touching Section 118's validity. The compliance condition. This may be the one that bites first. The exemption is conditional and partial compliance is insufficient, so the opening move for any antitrust plaintiff is not a constitutional attack but a pleading that the association fell short somewhere in the Act's affirmative requirements. That is a fact question. A shield that cannot end a case on a motion to dismiss is not a shield. It is a litigation tax. A more dependable bill would enumerate the protected rules, define conference discretion, list permissible sanctions, supply meaningful public review of enforcement, and make compliance determinable in advance rather than in discovery. Congress has a template in the 2022 HISA amendment the Fifth Circuit accepted. Whether it carries from rulemaking to enforcement is the question now before the Supreme Court. Super curious to hear Nick Saban and Deion Sanders's views on this.

During the past nine years I’ve been involved in college sports, I’ve never heard of an A.D. making the decision to give a head football or basketball coach a contract extension unless the President and Board were in agreement and encouraged the A.D. to do so. On the other hand, I’ve never heard of a President or Board member accepting any responsibility for making such a decision instead of just blaming it on the A.D.

I need to tell Coach Cal he may be wasting his time working with Congress to pass the PCSA. @heitner revealed that he has been calling “many Senators’ offices” to tell whichever low level staffer answers the phone that he thinks the PCSA is bad for athletes. That’s probably the last nail in the PCSA’s coffin.