Essay Question 1-
Coach Evelyn Smith is the long-time women's basketball coach at State University. In 15 years, she has compiled an incredible record of 315-94. Her teams have won several conference championships and appeared in the Sweet Sixteen four times and the Final Four once. Additionally, her teams' graduation rates and combined GPA's are always among the best in the athletic department. Coach Smith's contract will expire on June 30, 2016 (at the end of the University fiscal year). She would like long-term security, as well as pay more equivalent to her comparable peers. State University is committed to retaining Coach Smith for the foreseeable future and is willing to negotiate the terms of her next employment contract.
Acting as a representative for the State University Athletic Department, draft an initial contract offer for Coach Smith. You are allowed to use the textbook, the posted contracts, any other contract that you find, and any other research to draft the contract. However, DO NOT copy another contract (that would be plagiarism).Your contract must contain all essential terms of a contract plus the categories listed below. Please list your sources as footnotes at the end of the contract.
Remember, contract language should be easily understood - so don't adopt "legalese" from other contract examples if you don't easily understand what is meant!
Terms that must be included in the contract draft:
Salary
Length of contract
Benefits
Perquisites
Outside Athletics Related Personal Income
Terms of Performance
Termination
The contract draft should demonstrate your detailed understanding of the components of a standard employment contract. Additionally, the contract should be fair (and realistic), in terms of compensation, perquisites, and contract length. You are encouraged (expected) to do research into what the market value would be for comparable coaches/positions and make your offer accordingly.
Essay Question 2-
Read the O'Bannon v. NCAA case posted on Blackboard and prepare a detailed case briefing. What are the key facts of the case? What were the key issues to be decided? What were the decisions of the courts (all of them)? What were the court's reasonings (all of them)? What are the consequences of this outcome? What is your analysis of this ruling? What important cases did the courts use when forming their decision and why were these cases important?
When preparing your case brief, feel free to research the case and pull from other sources so that you have a complete and thorough understanding of the case (in fact, this is encouraged). Be sure to cite any and all sources which you use. Your brief should demonstrate a significant depth of understanding of the relevant laws (Anti-trust, Title IX, Amateur Laws, etc.) as well as both the O'Bannon's and the NCAA's stated positions/arguments regarding such laws. Additionally, it is expected that your additional research on the case will allow you to comment intelligently as to the potential, real impacts of this case.
O'Bannon v. NCAA
Here is the link to the actual case: http://www.nacua.org/documents/Wilken-NCAA-Order_8-11-14.pdf
There are a ton of reviews of the case on Heinonline and a general Google search will also turn up some interesting information. Using both the law reviews and general Google search will be very beneficial to you in understanding the nuances of this case.