Written by: Will Bower
Adjunct Instructor Dan Matheson’s College Athletics Infractions course looked a little different this semester.
Previously focused on the National Collegiate Athletic Association's infractions hearing process, this semester's course focused on arbitration hearings, a growing form of dispute resolution in the college sports world.
“I tweaked the subject matter to stay on the cutting-edge of the rapidly changing college sports industry,” Matheson said.
Arbitration hearings are a speedy form of alternative dispute resolution in which parties present their cases to a neutral arbitrator or panel. College athletes can now sign lucrative licensing agreements with their schools, which creates the need for specialized mechanisms to resolve disputes. Matheson’s course focused on the FAIR Sports model, which was developed by sports law experts to meet that need.
Students spent a few classes learning foundational content before receiving a fact pattern, a mock revenue sharing agreement, and a case file. The case file, developed by the experts at FAIR Sports in collaboration with Matheson and his research assistant, Colin Ward, handled a breached revenue sharing agreement between a football student-athlete and his university.
Working in small teams, students researched relevant Iowa law and developed pre-hearing briefs before participating in mock hearings. The hearings, presided over by Matheson and guest judges via Zoom, helped students strengthen their oral advocacy skills.
“One of my favorite parts of the course is how a fun, approachable subject like sports draws students into low-stakes advocacy experiences they may otherwise avoid,” Matheson said. “I’ve had many students tell me they discovered their passion for litigation through one of the sports dispute resolution courses here.”
The top two teams met in a competitive final hearing that was open to the campus community on Sept. 23. Representatives of the student-athlete – 2Ls Jose Muhina, Tyler Graham, and Jackson Langin – came away victorious, and both teams received detailed feedback from the sports law experts serving as guest judges.
“The feedback helped me in thinking about how to present myself when representing each side, and how to frame arguments in a way that is most compelling to subject-matter expert judges,” Graham said.
Opportunities like Matheson’s course are a major part of Iowa Law’s focus on experiential learning. For Muhina, it was his first endeavor in advocacy – an experience he described as initially uncomfortable.
“With every round of hearings, my comfort grew,” Muhina said. “Being able to gain that comfort through the course of a couple weeks is invaluable so that the first instance of discomfort doesn't hit me when I'm practicing with more than academic stakes on the line.”
In addition to providing valuable advocacy experience, the course helped students build their collaboration skills. Muhina said the experience of working in a team made an enriching course even more enjoyable.
“Law school can be isolating, like many other challenging professions,” Muhina said. “This course was a great reminder that this profession does not have to be isolating or competitive; that there is success to be had while enjoying ourselves as a group or team.”
