CA court rules that NCAA's “show-cause” penalty illegal under CA law

soxhop411

news aggravator
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Dec 4, 2009
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NCAA isn't happy and is threatening the membership of Pac-12 schools


One of the NCAA’s go-to sanctions is no longer legal in California.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Frederick Shaller issued a final decision Tuesday finding the “show-cause” penalty the NCAA issued against former USC assistant football coach Todd McNair violated state law.

Shaller’s eight-page decision voided the show-cause provision of NCAA bylaws because it constituted an “unlawful restraint” on McNair’s pursuing a lawful profession.

“McNair’s ability to practice his profession as a college football coach has been restricted, if not preempted, not only in Los Angeles, but in every state in the country,” Shaller wrote.

The judge added that the decision would “allow NCAA and member schools to conform their conduct to the law and prevent future litigation.”

McNair sued the NCAA seven years ago in the aftermath of the extra-benefits scandal centered on former USC running back Reggie Bush. The NCAA said McNair had not been honest with investigators; USC didn’t renew his contract.
Last month, the NCAA filed a declaration from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott warning that the judge’s tentative decision, if made final, could threaten the NCAA membership of all four of the conference’s California schools.

“If California law prevents institutions in that state from honoring such commitments, it is hard to see how the Pac-12’s Member Universities in California could continue to meet the requirements of NCAA membership,” Scott wrote.

The NCAA also filed a declaration from Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell expressing concern that conference schools could no longer rely on the NCAA’s disciplinary mechanisms if the show-cause penalty wasn’t legal.

Shaller dismissed those concerns in a separate filing Tuesday.

“The opinions of these two witnesses are completely speculative and irrelevant to the issue …” Shaller wrote. “The proposed testimony of Scott and Farrell is deemed inadmissible and is not considered.”
http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-todd-mcnair-show-cause-20181009-story.html
 

Cellar-Door

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Aug 1, 2006
34,464
The NCAA is as always full of shit. They aren't:
1) giving up on 2 of the 6 biggest TV markets in the country (4 of the top 28)
2) Setting up a situation where a number of very well known brands have an incentive to go into business as a competitor with a chance to make their own money, (and set their own rules that could serve as precedents to be used against NCAA claims).
 

InstaFace

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Sep 27, 2016
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Pittsburgh, PA
I was reading ESPN's article on this, and this bit of whining stood out:

"If California law prevents institutions in that state from honoring such commitments, it is hard to see how the Pac-12's Member Universities in California could continue to meet the requirements of NCAA membership," [Pac12 Commissioner Larry] Scott wrote. "Thus, the Court's tentative ruling would place at risk the competitive and scholarship opportunities that flow from NCAA participation for the Pac-12's California Member Universities."
I mean, are you fucking kidding me? As if schools couldn't (And don't already!) themselves grant these scholarships, which are really just charging a different price to some students rather than others. As if the NCAA themselves is bestowing massive scholarship largesse upon each of them, rather than the reality which is that they're just taxing the TV revenue they're creating, and creating all sorts of compliance jobs that every student, athlete and non-athlete alike, has to end up paying for.

Competitive opportunities? There aren't worthy recreational opponents to play against within the largest state in the union? The state which if by itself would be the 6th biggest economy in the world? Come the fuck on. Being an NCAA member is a convenient, but not required, facet of offering your STUDENTS an opportunity to play sports while they STUDY to get a DEGREE.

And that leaves aside the McCarthy-esque blacklisting aspect of the whole show-cause farce itself as being fundamentally un-American. I mean, California has gone out of its way to avoid such things, like making non-compete agreements unenforceable as a matter of public policy - and that's been cited as a driving force behind Silicon Valley's continued dominance of the tech landscape. They're used to being on the legal forefront of protections for workers against employers.

But imagine the consequences: If you're a top HS athlete, and you can attend a school in 49 states that follow NCAA rules (but actually this shady guy might come around and make you our real offer, keep it quiet), or choose a school in California that can offer you whatever the hell they want to in order to get you to play for them, including many forms of compensation... where do we expect the best talent to go? And how quickly would the whole NCAA charade fall apart?

I'm at Bart Scott levels of "can't fucking wait" on this one.
 
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IdiotKicker

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Nov 21, 2005
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Somerville, MA
And that leaves aside the McCarthy-esque blacklisting aspect of the whole show-cause farce itself as being fundamentally un-American. I mean, California has gone out of its way to avoid such things, like making non-compete agreements unenforceable as a matter of public policy - and that's been cited as a driving force behind Silicon Valley's continued dominance of the tech landscape. They're used to being on the legal forefront of protections for workers against employers.
This part I'm ambivalent about. On one level, I think a lot of the dumb crap that ends up with a show-cause finding is ridiculous and shouldn't be stuff that's punished anyways, but that's because I believe the NCAA is policing things they shouldn't be (payment to athletes, recruiting contact, methods, and visiting periods, etc). So I think the reason for some of those penalties are nutty on those merits. Having said that, in just about every industry out there, if you have either ethics or professional violations that get to a certain level, you can be prohibited from working in that industry for a time or permanently, depending on the severity of the violations. My issue is more with the types of violations that often lead to show-cause penalties, rather than the penalties themselves. I think they should be in place for stuff like what went on at Louisville and cases where the athletic staff is perpetrating academic fraud, but I think all the recruiting contact and money issues shouldn't be a problem that rises to that level. However, that's also because I think college athletes should be paid, so I'm coming at that from a much different view than the NCAA currently or likely ever will have.

Either way, the sooner the NCAA dies, the better.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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Sep 27, 2016
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Pittsburgh, PA
Licensed-profession investigations and disciplinary action are done pursuant to statute, with the regulatory board investigating alleged violations of the law by the licensee. Operating a crane while drunk, etc. When there's a complaint about (say) a lawyer, it goes to their state ethics board, not the ABA. Here, the NCAA is analogous to the ABA. And the basis on which they're prohibiting people from working in their chosen profession (which the state has an interest in) is extralegal - it's just their own organization's rules.

We likely agree on a lot on this issue, from the sound of it, but I think that comparison is apples and oranges. You can be prohibited from working in an industry if you break the law, not if you fail to recite the proper wizarding incantations.
 

IdiotKicker

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Nov 21, 2005
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Somerville, MA
Yeah if you want to make the case that the NCAA shouldn't be anywhere near this because of incompetence and/or their own lack of institutional control, I think there's a strong case to be made there. And to be honest, if you get rid of the prohibition on paying players or allowing them to receive outside compensation based on their talents, most of the other issues likely go away and are non-factors since you can actually, you know, pay players instead of hiding the fact that you're paying players. It's problem created by the very system they set up, and the sooner it dies, the better.