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A topic for the lawyers out there: the P2 and anti-trust law

I have been thinking a lot about how the Big10 and SEC have been behaving in the marketplace in the last 24 months, with the poaching of schools and the destruction of a weaker conference (PAC12) as a result. What really got my goat is their negotiating stance for the re-formatted playoff (before we get even one year under our belt in the first expanded playoff) - where they wanted guaranteed byes for their members as their opening position - and ended with a fallback position of them receiving disproportionately larger revenue shares, plus more guaranteed slots for their conferences. This felt to me like an anti-trust violation, but I am not a lawyer. I am a capitalist - I have no problem with the companies with the best products with the largest appeal leveraging their scale and appeal to increase their market share, which in the end will drive more value for consumers and the economy (despite what Lina Khan thinks). But what the Big10 and SEC are doing is not that. They are expanding market share through coercion, not competition. Not to mention, their behavior might also threaten the tax exempt status that college conferences enjoy - none of the BILLIONS of TV revenue is taxed - based on the fact they are "501(c)(3) organizations" that conduct business for the furtherance of an educational purpose. There is an argument that "the athletic department is the front door of the university" in a world that competes for students, resources, professors, etc., but that argument starts to fail when the scale of revenue reaches the heights it has, and the leaders of the industry are consolidating power for its own sake. Here is a link with some discussion of the tax exemption question. https://taxfoundation.org/blog/college-sports-tax-free-re... Back to the anti-trust question - lawsuits should be coming, based on how the last CFP negotiation went down. Who will bring them is the big question. Schools like us that want to be invited to the dance are not likely to be plaintiffs in the short term. In the near term it could be G5 schools, and the spurned schools of the Pac12. Below is a link with some discussion on this topic.
Posted: 04/06/2024 at 11:13 AM ET

Thread Replies (6)

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A topic for the lawyers out there: the P2 and anti-trust law
MaroonLantern 04/06/24 11:13 AM ET
ESPN seems to have been the worst actor by far. By my math, they control
TDVick 04/06/24 05:30 PM ET
I feel that what the B1G did to the Pac-12 was some real Robber Baron stuff
Maroon Baboon 04/06/24 01:33 PM ET
I still believe Stanford and Cal to the ACC
VTCALS72 04/06/24 05:02 PM ET
Good Point
VPI 1924 04/06/24 11:24 AM ET
Literally ? Is there a video ?**
33laszlo99 04/06/24 02:51 PM ET
Yes
VPI 1924 04/06/24 04:14 PM ET