college sport contract

Others might will better Info , but a friend of mine last year , decommited from  a big ten D1 because of this . They didn’t want I give him the insurance..

I wonder if it’s different in college. I ran a travel program through 16u. My lawyer called them a nothing to lose document for the team. But he said they’re meaningless once the injured party is smart enough to contact a lawyer. The team was covered for 1M.

KilroyJ, is this contract you're referring to one from the university specifically or is it one of the official NCAA eligibility forms that the athlete is required to sign?  

My professional experience is with the NCAA rules, but I'm not an attorney and have no formal law school training.  With that said, my take on this is that an attorney might (although unlikely) be able to work with a university to amend a university-specific form.

However, if an attorney attempts to amend a required NCAA eligibility document for an athlete, the university will effectively say "you're welcome to play somewhere else, but you're not going to be a member of one of our teams."  

As a general rule you can't contract away negligence.  A lawyered up player with a legitimate negligence claim would likely have recourse through the court system.  Those waivers you sign for everything from riding go-karts at the beach to showcase camps don't carry much weight if there is negligence involved.

OPUS, the waivers are governed by state law, so there may be wide differences amongst states in what can be contracted away.

In my state, negligence can be waived in advance (otherwise the waiver has no purpose because absent negligence there is no tort); gross negligence or willful misconduct cannot be waived in advance (in my state).

I owned a business which required a signed waiver. Over the two decades of operations we were sued three times; all were dismissed by the court based upon the waiver. (Effective waiver language, however, needs to be absolutely precise as courts do try to allow actions to proceed.)

What a waiver essentially does is shift costs from the business to the consumer (consumer needs to buy insurance rather than the business). 

Rick at Informed Athlete posted:

KilroyJ, is this contract you're referring to one from the university specifically or is it one of the official NCAA eligibility forms that the athlete is required to sign?  

My professional experience is with the NCAA rules, but I'm not an attorney and have no formal law school training.  With that said, my take on this is that an attorney might (although unlikely) be able to work with a university to amend a university-specific form.

However, if an attorney attempts to amend a required NCAA eligibility document for an athlete, the university will effectively say "you're welcome to play somewhere else, but you're not going to be a member of one of our teams."  

It seems to be a school-specific form.

In that case, it might be possible to work with the university to have the contract amended.  However, it might set your athlete up for a possible adversarial relationship with the coaching staff.  They might perceive that "this athlete and/or his family could be troublemakers and not a good fit for our team."  

I agree that the contract may seem very one-sided (same is true with NCAA-required forms), but trying to fight "the system" may just be putting your athlete in a situation where he (or she) may be viewed differently from others on the team.   

KilroyJ posted:

 ....or signing away the rights to ones likeness in perpetuity for no compensation, even ones created AFTER participation is complete.

Or is this just normally a "take it or leave it" contract?

So, you are thinking your son warrants a $ royalty for his picture in promotional info after he graduates?

He, and we, are THRILLED they used his "likeness" on his college stats web-page for 2 years after he left!  Also,  if he plays summer ball, you will see this again in the summer contract.   Son was co-POY one summer and a banner was erected the summer after he played, picture was published after he was drafted, etc.  

It's a no-brainer.  Take the free publicity!

The medical negligance... I remember thinking it means  that the team's medical coverage won't  cover if your son does something stupid and gets hurt, like climbs the football poles and falls off, gets drunk after a game and gets hurt, etc.   Most colleges medical coverage will pay for baseball-related injuries, and any related issues for ONE YEAR after the injury.  There is a form indicating the nature of the injury and it will be dated.   (This was also true  for the travel team insurance). 

I feel like I am a pro on the insurance issue.  We had to use both travel (tooth knocked out) and college team (2 hip surgeries) insurance.   When pro, the insurance is actually covered by the team/worker's comp.