Nik Scholtz and Jonas Lutjen of the Ole Miss Men's Tennis Team
OXFORD, Miss. – The Mississippi Sports Law Review’s third annual symposium will explore the future of the student-athlete model of amateurism in intercollegiate athletics next week at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
Part of the John Paul Jones Speaker Series, the symposium on “Amateurism and the Future of the NCAA” addresses the issues surrounding the high-profile class action filed by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, in which current and former student-athletes are suing the NCAA for using their likenesses without compensation. The outcome of this case could potentially change the landscape of college athletics and threaten the future of the NCAA.
The symposium begins at 1 p.m. Oct. 11 in the law school’s Weems Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, and participating attorneys can get two hours of Mississippi CLE credit for the session.
The symposium features a panel discussion with five prominent members of the sports law community. The panelists are Richard Karcher, professor and director of the Center for Law and Sports at Florida Coastal School of Law; William King, partner at Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC in Birmingham, Ala.; Jason Levien, chief executive officer of the Memphis Grizzlies; Matthew Mitten, professor and director of the National Sports Law Institute and L.L.M. program in sports law at Marquette University Law School; and Maureen Weston, professor and director of the Entertainment Media and Sports Dispute Resolution Project at Pepperdine Law School.
“Our students have put together a fantastic panel of experts to address the legal and practical questions surrounding the propriety of compensating intercollegiate athletes,” said William W. Berry III, UM assistant professor of law and faculty adviser to the Sports Law Review. “These controversial questions lie at the heart of the future of intercollegiate athletics. It should be a fascinating discussion.”