Daniel Libit

SCOOP: The peak NIL-era lawsuit? Darian Mensah's agent Noah Reisenfeld (of 20% commission infamy) sues Lil Wayne's @YMAPPASports to void $2.5M exit fee, claiming agency wrongly treated him as employee. YMAPPA counters with literal dog shit. For @Sportico 👇 sportico.com/leagues/colleg…

Great read 👇

Some thoughts on the $9.6B @Seahawks sale: 💰 Modern sports deals syndicate *after* signing 👩 Gender barrier broken 🗣️ Vinod Khosla has said things no other @NFL owner would say publicly ✍️ Wiki edits 📈 Does the NFL actually care about price? & more 👇 sportico.com/business/team-…

When Vinod Kohsla's @Seahawks deal was announced, both he and the team told curious fans to go read his Wikipedia One day prior, a number of edits were made to the page, including the removal of a sentence identifying him as a Democrat That editor has only edited Vinod's page

In 2024, Aura Moody, who is Black, was denied entrance into a Mets game because she wore a MAGA hat. When she put her hat away and entered Citi Field, she saw others there wearing MAGA hats, and they were White. Her race discrimination suit advances: sportico.com/law/analysis/2….

This is a huge scandal. The University of Michigan has reportedly deliberately avoided producing a written report of an investigation into its Athletic Department to circumvent the possibility of FOIA requests. These people can’t be entrusted to care for campus athletic workers

The University of Michigan's top lawyer just announced he is leaving for Stanford. Wonder what the athletic department investigation showed about his role in all that went on and if Stanford knew when they hired him. stanforddaily.com/2026/07/13/tim…

@MattBrownEP Yes

you know what? maybe I should write that before I go on vacation. would more than a few people actually read it?

For some higher ed perspective, the Freeh Report cost Penn State about $8 million 13 years ago (about $11 million in today's dollars). Freeh produced a 250+ page report which was released to the public the day it was presented to the Penn State Board.

As Congress weighs college sports legislation, attorney Paul McDonald argues Democrats should pressure the NCAA by tying support for the Protect College Sports Act to action on voting rights and Black political representation. Full story: sportico.com/business/sport…

Sportico has a good writeup of the new retaliation suit against Stephen F. Austin. Two beach volleyball players, Ryann Allison and Brynn Dowd, say they were cut from the reinstated roster because of the underlying Title IX litigation-Allison as a named plaintiff, Dowd for her outspoken support. Setting the merits aside, this is a tough case on remedies, IMO. Start with the money. Title IX lets you sue the university, but the Supreme Court has fenced in what you can collect: no damages for emotional distress (Cummings, 2022) and no punitive damages (Barnes, 2002). That leaves out-of-pocket economic loss—and for a student-athlete that's often modest, unless the players can point to something concrete like lost scholarship money, transfer costs, delayed graduation, or lost NIL income. The First Amendment claim opens a door to emotional-distress and punitive damages—but only against the coach personally. The university and the state system are shielded by the Eleventh Amendment (states generally can't be sued for damages), and the claim against the coach still has to get past qualified immunity, the protection government employees get unless they've clearly crossed a legal line. So the fight that matters is really about getting back on the team, not a check. A court can order a university official to reinstate the players going forward, and Title IX supports that kind of order. For a rising senior, a roster spot is worth far more than any realistic damages award. One more wrinkle: attorney's fees. After Lackey v. Stinnie, winning an early injunction and then having the case fizzle out as moot doesn't automatically make you a "prevailing party" entitled to fees. If a player gets her final season and graduates before there's a final ruling, she could get exactly what she wanted and still lose the fee claim.

And Shelly Moore Capito got a donation just a couple months ago from Tom McMillen, who is being paid by Smash Sports to lobby in favor of the Protect College Sports Act!

Michigan is not my worst school about responding to open records requests (even very basic ones), but they're probably in my top ten. Michigan's open records law isn't especially reporter/public friendly though.

SCOOP: Two beach volleyball players have filed a new Title IX lawsuit against @SFASU, alleging they were cut from reinstated @SFA_Beach program because of ties to earlier Title IX challenge over school’s attempted elimination team. w/ @McCannSportsLaw 👇 sportico.com/leagues/colleg…

Ruh roh.

SCOOP: Final accounting on the 2025-26 NHL season is still underway, but early projections have players getting an extra $170M based on the league's 50-50 revenue split in the CBA. It represents a roughly 5.5% bump to salaries. In contrast, NBA salaries were docked 5.5% for 2025-26 to make their 51-49 rev split work. sportico.com/leagues/hockey… via @sportico

Litigating over beach volleyball might well becoming a new NCAA emerging sport. 🏐🧑‍⚖️👇

Notable Title IX suit that accuses Stephen F. Austin State Univ. and its beach volleyball coach of retaliating against athletes involved in a separate suit against the school. The players say coach cut them from team as punishment. With @DanielLibit: sportico.com/leagues/colleg….

Turmoil swirls in Ann Arbor and it’s not just related to the Jenner & Block Investigation. A lawsuit filed by Chris Partridge claims Ex-UM president, AD Warde Manuel had "evidence of cheating" by football program and hid it from NCAA. With @Dave_Boucher1. freep.com/story/news/inv…

The old double negative