Should College Sports Revenue Be Taxed?

College basketball and football are big business — no one would deny that.  But should they be taxed like big business?  Although the NCAA and its member schools are tax-exempt not-for-proft organizations, such organization may nonetheless be taxed on “unrelated business income.”  So, the question is whether big-time college sports programs are related to the educational mission of the universities that host them.

Matt Mitten, James Musselman, and Bruce Burton argue “yes” in a new article — because sports programs advance a wide range of legitimate university objectives, sports revenues should retain their tax-exempt status.  Based on a number of case studies, they conclude that the benefits to universities of improved athletic programs may include “attracting high-quality faculty and students, generating donations and enrichment, reconfiguring [] campus identities, and enhancing institutional political clout.” 

Although Matt and his coauthors do not believe that tax law is the right way to reform college athletics, they recognize a need for changes to better protect student-athletes from exploitation.  They would promote reform through a new, conditional antitrust exemption for the NCAA and its members. 

Their article, entitled “Commercialized Intercollegiate Athletics: A Proposal for Targeted Reform Consistent with American Cultural Forces and Marketplace Realities,” was recenly published at 2 J. Intercollegiate Sport 202 as part of a symposium on tax law and athletic reform.  The abstract appears after the jump. 

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Establishment and the Limits of Neutrality

Rick Esenberg has a new article in print that explores tensions within the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence.  In light of the recent, controversial decision overturning the National Day of Prayer, Rick’s topic could not be more timely.  As Rick observed earlier this week, the Day of Prayer opinion is consistent with a long line of cases that attempt to achieve a level of government neutrality as to religion that seems unrealistic and overly ambitious.  The article argues that “subtle expressive injury” cannot be entirely avoided when the government speaks, and suggests that the Establishment Clause jurisprudence would be much improved by abandoning any pretense to complete expressive neutrality.

The article, entitled “Must God Be Dead or Irrelevant: Drawing a Circle that Lets Me In,” appeared at 18 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 1.  The abstract appears after the jump. 

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Gender Frustrations

I have taken a week to think about how to blog about a session that I saw last weekend at the ABA Conference.  The session was about using movies to demonstrate gender differences in negotiation, and I went to see what teaching tools might be provided.  I was on the negotiation program track for the ABA, and had helped select this session for presentation at the conference, so I was really looking forward to it.  Instead, the session became a very good example of the challenges in teaching about gender differences in negotiation.

The session started out with slides that listed how women communicate or how women negotiate.  I think, in retrospect, that the speakers may have been trying to highlight some of the stereotypes about women from the 1970’s and ask whether these were still relevant but — without any introduction to what they planned to do, cites to the outdated research, or other signposting — it appeared that the speakers were presenting these comments as current and true (even if that was not their intention).  When asked what research this was based on, the speakers stated that “this is what the research shows. ”  As some in the audience continued to challenge further assertions about the research, the tone went downhill and unfortunately, rather than becoming a learning experience, became more of an argument, which continued even after the session.  All this, of course, at a dispute resolution conference. 

I wanted to unpack a few key things from this session. 

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