“I have a list in my head of people who doubted [me]. I remember exactly what you said, when you said it, and what you were wearing when you said it.” ☑️ #TheCaptain

Somewhere, Tony Tarasco just threw a shoe at his television. #yankees #ALDS #MLBPostseason #NYY #RepBX

So, without answering the question of whether college athletes should be considered university employees with collective bargaining rights, and without any real input from them and those who represent them, we have the first step toward what is effectively a bargaining agreement? This is politics 101. The wealthy and powerful entities have all-access to certain members of Congress and to the Oval Office, while the college athletes are left standing the other side of the closed door. Meanwhile, those who generate the billions at issue - the players - are the focus of the PCSA. “Chaos” and problems have arisen only when college athletes get paid, not coaches, not ADs, not conference commissioners. We shall see what the House will do on November 3. Litigation, including the pending cases here in NJ, however, will continue. Wonder what the FEC site will reveal?? nypost.com/2026/09/28/us-new…

Welcome to the party, @stephenasmith. Good to have your voice and platform!

Tragic news about Barry Melrose. I had the chance to meet him in Ottawa for NHL All Star Weekend in 2012. I was coaching a couple of teams for the Montclair Hockey Club and was invited to Ottawa by a father of one of the kids I coached who also happened to be (and still is) a NHL executive. I’m at the All Star hotel bar one night having a drink at a table with the player’s father as NHL players mingled along with NHL personnel and low and behold in walks Barry - very tall, was my first thought. And it became clear to me that he was the Mayor of the NHL! Revered, as in the room stopped, he shook everyone’s hand, and came over to our table, sat down, and I was introduced to him. For the next few hours, we ordered cocktails (too many) and used the cocktail napkins to draw practice drills on. You’d think the last thing he wanted to talk about was hockey, but once he learned that I was a coach, he went right into coach mode and it was hockey all night! One of the nicest guys going. I’ll be digging those old napkins out now and having a cocktail this weekend in his honor. Thank you for the phenomenal memories, Barry. The NHL lost one of its greats tonight.

There are few better in college basketball and in life than Steve Pikiell. A good and honorable and decent man, to be sure. I first got the chance to get to know Coach Pikiell many years ago when I was representing a former Rutgers basketball player who was playing overseas but played two seasons for Coach Pikiell. Coach Pikiell routinely checked in with the player and with me to see how the player was handling being overseas and away from home, to discuss plays that were being run (which informed me that he was taking the time to watch the games in his free time), to sending hype videos for the team and the player come playoff time. Little things like that show you someone’s true character. What I texted him this evening when I saw this news won’t be shared here. Suffice it to say, however, whether you’re from Seton Hall (like me) or NJIT or Princeton or Monmouth or Rider or St. Peter’s or Fairleigh Dickinson, Coach Pikiell has ALL of New Jersey in his corner. 🗣️ R 🗣️ U 🗣️ Upstream, Coach Pikiell! Coach Pikiell, upstream‼️‼️ @RutgersMBB @RUAthletics @RutgersU

CSC will boast its cleared NIL deals. But 2,296 NIL deals were not cleared with an aggregate value of $156.93M since the launch of CSC. And, in one month between July 1 and August 31, 2026, 484 NIL deals were not cleared with an aggregate value of $67.08M The calculations of average values of NIL deals approved and rejected are interesting too: CSC inception to December 31, 2025: average value of NIL deals of $7,433.35 were approved, average value of $28,896.95 were rejected. January 1, 2026 - February 28, 2026: $10,536.99 approved, $75,058.82 rejected. March 1, 2026 - April 30, 2026: $13,575.30 approved, $59,020.46 rejected. May 1, 2026 - June 30, 2026: $14,673.25 approved, $50,179.05 rejected. July 1, 2026 - August 31, 2026: $18,482.86 approved, $138,595.04 rejected. The CSC appears to be dictating or setting the market on NIL deals, not the market dictating or setting the market. And, a lot of rejections in just one month, coincidentally (or not) the month during which or immediately before commits are to report to campus.

College sports in chaos and dying …

So much for the Charlie Baker & Nick Saban Bus Tour lobbying Congress, penning op-eds in the USA Today, doing commercials, and posting video clips about the need for the Protect College Sports Act.

This will certainly be added to documents filed by plaintiffs in court, because this is exactly what happened with the Covid-era waivers, the Pavia waivers, and pros coming back before. Only now it’s a concern??

“comply with court orders” as if the SEC had any choice.

I found this part equally interesting because it appears that the court found that granting the relief sought would alter and not preserve the status quo … meaning, the court considered the request for relief to be a mandatory injunction (i.e., requiring the NCAA to take affirmative action) rather than a prohibitory injunction (i.e., asking to stop the NCAA from doing something). It appears it’s all in the ask.

What he (@NYPost_Brazille) said ⬇️⬇️

Applaud Seth for drafting what should otherwise be either the opening of or at the very least contained somewhere in a Preliminary Statement to briefs to be filed on behalf of college athletes: “This is all happening because for decades the leaders in college sports tried to hold up a system that was illogical, illegal and immoral. They could have seen this coming and made the proper adjustments. Instead, the house of cards came crashing down. As well it should have.”

Spent three hours driving to Philly on the phone with coaches and players - all with the same question: what’s this mean? All it means is that the District of Colorado’s decision granting eligibility to 2022ers is hold. The Tenth Circuit has not yet addressed the ultimate merits of the NCAA’s appeal. The Tenth Circuit will now consider whether the District of Colorado was correct when it enjoined the NCAA’s eligibility rules by finding that those rules likely violated federal antitrust law. Notably, most if not all of the state court cases in which plaintiffs have challenged the same eligibility rules have based their claims on third-party beneficiary theories, namely that they are third-party beneficiaries to the contract [NCAA Bylaws] between the and member institutions [schools] and that the DI Council’s adoption and implementation of the eligibility rules set forth in the NCAA Bylaws constitute a breach of the contract to which the college athletes are beneficiaries (except one in NJ state court that also asserted, as an alternative theory, violations of NJ state antitrust statute (modeled after Sherman)). You’ll now see a flood of state court cases by college athletes. And, I anticipate, a flood of appeals by the NCAA in existing and future state court cases. Another “slow news day” on Friday!

Spot on, Darren. I’ve sat through these investigations and witness interviews on behalf of other clients when the NCAA was conducting them. It was almost as if athletes hadn’t gotten the message: that they can and are expressly permitted to have independent counsel representing them during these interviews and investigations. Critical!

All eyes are on the Tenth Circuit. Interestingly, the plaintiffs in the Ohio case are included as members of the certified class in the Colorado case.

I have written about the issue of “NIL agents” in articles, shouted about this issue on podcasts, posted about this issue on X, and told players and parents this for years. As a lawyer for college athletes, I’ve had to terminate relationships between players and a few of these “NIL agents” before at the request of parents and players. If there’s a “Wild West” in college athletics, it’s the “NIL agent” … “industry.” The lack of transparency. The lack of accountability. The lack of oversight. The lack of experience and expertise. The lack of certification. The lack of governance. And, if we’re talking about negotiating rev share, for what in the world are you paying 10%-20%? Real estate agents do more work and you pay them only 6% at best. It’s nice to see NFLPA agents and college GMs taking a stand/position on “NIL agents.” It’s one of the few aspects of the Protect College Sports Act that I actually like. There are very good agents, don’t get me wrong. They focus their efforts on actual brand deals (for which 10%-20% is appropriate). Thank you to @zkeefer for putting this on blast.

I have written about the issue of “NIL agents” in articles, shouted about this issue on podcasts, posted about this issue on X, and told players and parents this for years. As a lawyer for college athletes, I’ve had to terminate relationships between players and a few of these “NIL agents” before at the request of parents and players. If there’s a “Wild West” in college athletics, it’s the “NIL agent” … “industry.” The lack of transparency. The lack of accountability. The lack of oversight. The lack of experience and expertise. The lack of certification. The lack of governance. And, if we’re talking about negotiating rev share, for what in the world are you paying 10%-20%? Real estate agents do more work and you pay them only 6% at best. It’s nice to see NFLPA agents and college GMs taking a stand/position on “NIL agents.” It’s one of the few aspects of the Protect College Sports Act that I actually like. There are very good agents, don’t get me wrong. They focus their efforts on actual brand deals (for which 10%-20% is appropriate). Thank you to @zkeefer for putting this on blast.

Behold. The worst decision in Major League Baseball stadium history.

Unfortunately, this is true. Players have been getting sold for decades. Worse, players are sold by those who are ordinarily vested with the responsibility for looking out for the players’ best interests. I wrote about this very issue and, coincidentally, NIL back in July 2018 for World Sports Advocate. And it was happening long before July 2018. “Some [ ] see their players as meal tickets and seek to profit off them while they can. Parents, and the players themselves, place their trust in their coaches who are supposed to safeguard the players and act in the players’ best interests free from conflict. Unfortunately, that does not always happen. Indeed, too often the very people who are charged with the responsibility to genuinely care about and protect unsuspecting children simply exploit and sell them for their own financial gain. As the DOJ noted: “coaches at some of the nation’s top programs taking cash bribes, managers and advisors circling blue-chip prospects like coyotes, and employees of a global sportswear company funneling cash to families of high school recruits” and “exploited the hoop dreams of student-athletes... treating them as little more than opportunities to enrich themselves through bribery and fraud. Even Kobe, while criticising AAU coaches for failing to teach fundamental basketball, suggested that ‘the coaches who are teaching the game are getting rewarded in one fashion or another.’”