Leveling the Playing Field: Applying the Doctrines of Unconscionability and Condition Precedent to Effectuate Student-Athlete Intent Under the National Letter of Intent
2002; Routledge; Volume: 43; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0043-5589
Autores Tópico(s)Business Law and Ethics
Resumodon't feel like I should play for somebody who has never seen me (1) players have no voice, and that's wrong.... [I]f a coach leaves before the player sets foot on campus, the player should have the ability to choose [a school] again. (2) Under the current rules governing an incoming student-athlete's relationship with the chosen university, however, the player does not have such a choice. The dramatic turnover of intercollegiate coaches in recent years (3) has resulted in an increasing number of incoming student-athletes who have signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) (4) to play for and attend a particular institution being behind when the coach for whom they have chosen to play departs for greener pastures. A coach is free to leave the university to pursue alternate career paths, often bringing his or her style of play to another university, yet the athletes recruited to play in that coach's system are precluded from following the one for whom they wished to play. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Collegiate Commissioner's Association (CCA), and proponents of the NLI see no injustice in such a situation. (5) They stridently assert that the athlete agrees to toil in a program, devoting countless hours to practice, and incurring obligations far greater than a nonathlete student, not of an affinity for a particular coach's personality, style of play, or reputation for molding professional athletes, (6) but for the school itself. (7) Such views hold true in numerous situations, but are not shared by those left with uncertain futures of the coach's departure--the incoming student-athlete. (8) Enforcement of the NLI results in a situation in which a coach can tear up his contract and move to an environment in which he can immediately pursue his dreams, aspirations, and occupation. The prospective student-athlete, however, is not so fortunate. (9) The current NLI enforcement policy has been severely criticized by intercollegiate coaches. Dale Brown, the former head men's basketball coach at Louisiana State University, once compared the athlete's predicament to that of a bride arriving at the chapel and discovering that the groom did not show. (10) Rick Pitino, once notorious for moving from one coaching position to the next, stated that his personal feeling is that the recruits should have the right to go and follow their coaches. (11) Even Cedric Dempsey, president of the NCAA, agreed that the welfare of the student-athletes should be taken into account because they're the ones who are caught in the middle. (12) Despite such sentiment, and the outcries of players who have been jilted at Dale Brown's proverbial alter, players continue to be bound to the universities with which they signed. The rules governing the NLI have not been discussed at any great length [by college sports administrators] in recent years. But as we have become more and more concerned about ... student-athlete welfare this is one of those issues where you ask: Are the rules fair to the student-athletes? This is certainly an issue that deserves some discussion. (13) Such a discussion, in the context of presenting two avenues for student-athletes to free themselves of the NLI's transfer constraints, is the focus of this Note. The current rules and relationships between college administrators and student-athletes harken to a time when coaches remained at institutions for their entire careers (often becoming institutions in their own right), but are no longer applicable in the current era of intercollegiate athletics. The primary goal of this Note is to apply traditional contract principles to the NLI to posit possible causes of action that support the incoming student-athlete's position, and that would afford such an athlete the option to reselect a school if the athlete's anticipated coach has vacated the position. …
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