Sports Law: A Comprehensive Guide to Athlete Contracts Nil and League Governance

88 questions on sports law, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are college athletes employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act?
• Are NIL collectives and advisors regulated as athlete agents?
• Can a college athlete endorse a cannabis brand?
• Can a college athlete license their school's logo in an NIL deal?
• Can a court order an athlete to play for a team?
• Can an individual player contract improve on the CBA?
• Does the baseball antitrust exemption extend to other sports?
• Does the labor exemption reach people who are not yet union members?
• Does Title IX apply to direct revenue sharing with college athletes?
• How do contract guarantees differ across the major American leagues?
• How do courts review a sports league's internal governance decisions?
• How does a Lanham Act false-endorsement claim differ from a right-of-publicity claim?
• How does federal tax law shape stadium finance?
• How does sports grievance arbitration work?
• How does workers' compensation apply to professional athletes?
• How do players' unions regulate athlete agents?
• How do salary cap structures differ across leagues?
• How is anti-doping law administered?
• How is international sport governed?
• How is NIL income taxed?
• How is the rule of reason applied to sports league restraints?
• How much can a court review a labor arbitration award in sports?
• How much do state NIL statutes vary?
• How settled is the First Amendment analysis in athlete publicity cases?
• How should counsel approach a player suspension grievance?
• What are the four layers of sports-betting regulation?
• What are the limits on a commissioner's disciplinary power?
• What are the three components of Title IX athletics compliance?
• What are the three prongs of Title IX athletics participation compliance?
• What did Alston not decide?
• What did Brady v. NFL decide about enjoining a lockout?
• What did Brown v. Pro Football decide about the labor exemption after impasse?
• What did Finley v. Kuhn establish about commissioner authority?
• What did Hackbart v. Cincinnati Bengals establish?
• What did Justice Kavanaugh's Alston concurrence say?
• What did Murphy v. NCAA hold about sports betting?
• What did NCAA v. Alston hold?
• What did O'Bannon v. NCAA decide?
• What did the Brady “Deflategate” litigation actually decide?
• What did the CJEU decide in the European Superleague case?
• What did the Curt Flood Act of 1998 actually do?
• What diligence does an NIL deal require?
• What does a modern sports collective bargaining agreement contain?
• What does the House settlement do to college sports?
• What does the standard player contract require of an athlete?
• What does the Uniform Athlete Agents Act require?
• What do youth concussion statutes require?
• What federal statutes still regulate sports betting after Murphy?
• What happened in the NFL concussion litigation?
• What immigration and tax issues arise for international athletes in the U.S.?
• What is a “$36 million contract” really worth in the NFL?
• What is an NIL collective, and what legal problems does it raise?
• What is a union disclaimer of interest, and why do players use it?
• What is NIL, doctrinally?
• What is Section 301 preemption, and why does it defeat athlete tort claims?
• What is SPARTA, and who enforces it?
• What is sports law?
• What is strict liability in anti-doping, and how can an athlete reduce a sanction?
• What is the announced justification for a draft, and what is its antitrust vulnerability?
• What is the anti-collusion regime in a sports CBA?
• What is the “baseball rule” for spectator injuries?
• What is the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and can U.S. courts review its awards?
• What is the difference between the statutory and nonstatutory labor exemptions?
• What is the first question to ask in any sports law problem?
• What is the Mackey test for the nonstatutory labor exemption?
• What is the nonstatutory labor exemption, and why does it matter in sports?
• What is the practical lesson of Brady for player-side counsel?
• What is the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act?
• What is the single most valuable skill in sports law practice?
• What is the “two hats” problem in league discipline?
• What parts of sports law are moving fastest and must be verified?
• What remedies does Title IX provide?
• What rights underlie a sports media-rights deal?
• What should counsel read first when a player faces league discipline?
• What standard governs injuries between athletes during play?
• What test did American Needle establish for concerted action?
• What was the “fatal dictum” in NCAA v. Board of Regents?
• What was the single-entity defense, and why did it fail?
• What would college-athlete employee status actually change?
• Where did the commissioner's “best interests” power come from?
• Why can't college athletes simply unionize under the NLRA?
• Why did a fantasy sports operator win where EA lost?
• Why did EA lose the college video-game right-of-publicity cases?
• Why did the NFL lose the Raiders relocation case?
• Why does so much NFL contract value migrate into the signing bonus?
• Why is a sports league an antitrust problem?
• Why is baseball exempt from the antitrust laws?
• Why would ordinary sports league practices be illegal in any other industry?