Current Events

Save the Date for this year's Alan and Linda Cohen Family Foundation Sports and Entertainment Law Lecture!

Event Recording

Description: From the United States Supreme Court decision in Alston v. NCAA to name/image/likeness state regulation to a constitutional overhaul of the NCAA: What will the collegiate athletic experience look like in five years?

CLE Materials:

NCAA v. Alston et el  

NCAA Policy and Resources Related to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL)

NCAA Constitutional Committee Scope and Charge

NCAA Constitution November 8, 2021 Draft

NCAA Division I Transformation Committee

Panel Members

Julie Roe Lach, ‘04 - Moderator

Commissioner, Horizon League

Julie Roe Lach was named the Horizon League's sixth Commissioner on January 1, 2021. Previously she served as Deputy Commissioner beginning in August 2014.

Roe Lach has been involved with college athletics for 20 years. During her time at the Horizon League, she has been responsible for all core functions with special emphasis on championships, television, finances, governance/compliance and operationalizing the league’s strategic plan. Her responsibilities also involved men’s basketball oversight, including forging a partnership with the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Events Center to host the Horizon League Basketball Championship at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum for the 2020-22 seasons.

Prior to the Horizon League, Roe Lach worked at the NCAA for over 15 years, most recently serving as the vice president of enforcement from October 2010 to February 2013. After leaving the NCAA, Julie founded JRL Consulting which merged with CCHA Collegiate Consulting where Roe Lach currently serves as Managing Principal and Of Counsel with the CCHA Sports Law practice. CCHA represents institutions and individuals on any type of NCAA matter, offers NCAA education and assessments of compliance practices in athletic departments, and provides representation of individuals and coaches in contract and employment matters.

Roe Lach earned her undergraduate degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, as a Presidential Scholar. Roe Lach graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 grade-point average and was chosen the 1998 GTE Academic All-American of the Year for the Collegiate Division. Also, she was selected as one of the top ten 1997 NCAA Woman of the Year Finalists and was a 1997 Kodak All-American 1st Team (Division III Women’s Basketball). She was inducted into Millikin University’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002 and CoSIDA’s Academic All-American Hall of Fame in 2009. Roe Lach was awarded the merit-loyalty award by Millikin in 2010. Roe Lach was also honored by the IBJ in 2010 as a “Forty Under Forty” honoree.

Roe Lach served on Millikin’s Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2010, and is currently a Trustee Emeritus. Roe Lach attended the evening division of Indiana University McKinney School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2004, and is an active member of the Indiana Bar. She also received an honorary doctorate from Millikin University in 2012.

Roe Lach serves on the IU McKinney School of Law Board of Directors and previously served as president of McKinney’s Alumni Association. She serves on the Board of Directors WeCoach, a national non-profit organization founded to recruit and retain women coaches. Recently, Roe Lach also joined the Indiana Sports Commission Board of Directors and chairs the Strategy and Events Committee. Roe Lach also serves on the Fundraising Committee for Family Promise of Hamilton County, a non-profit focused on serving homeless families.

Gabe Feldman - Panelist

Sher Garner Professor of Sports Law, Abram B. Barron Professor of Law, Director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, Tulane Law School

Gabe Feldman is the Sher Garner Professor Sports Law and Paul and Abram B. Barron Professor of Law at Tulane Law School, the Director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, the Co-Director of the Tulane Center for Sport (a multi-disciplinary center that studies the sports industry from the legal, medical, financial, social, and political perspectives to help improve the lives of athletes), and the Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance at Tulane University. Prior to joining the Tulane Law School faculty, Professor Feldman was a litigator at Williams & Connolly in Washington D.C., where he practiced in a variety of areas, including antitrust law, labor law, and intellectual property. Professor Feldman has spent his entire academic career studying, teaching, and researching the application of labor law, antitrust law, and intellectual property law to the professional and college sports industries. Over the last 10 years, he has focused more specifically on the health and welfare of college athletes through a from the legal, medical, psychological, financial, and societal perspectives. Professor Feldman has published multiple law review articles analyzing the application of antitrust law to the NCAA, authored a White Paper in 2016 commissioned by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics analyzing the antitrust and labor implications of providing compensation to college athletes for the use of their NIL (and continues to serve as a consultant for the Knight Commission), and currently serves as the Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission NIL Committee. In January 2021, he testified before the Florida State House of Representatives regarding NIL issues and previously testified before the United States Congress regarding the interplay between state workplace drug testing laws and the collectively-bargained drug testing policies of sports leagues. Professor Feldman has also taught several classes that focus on labor and antitrust issues involving the NCAA and college athletes.

Professor Feldman has also served on the NCAA Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports Committee for several years and still serves on (and often chairs) the NCAA Drug Testing Appeals Committee. He is on the Board of Directors of the Sports Lawyers Association and has served as their Director of Publications for several years. He is the faculty editor of The Sports Lawyers Journal, The Sports Law Monthly, and the Sports Law Weekly. Professor Feldman also serves on the Board of Directors and Educational Committee of Athletes for Hope, a non-profit organization designed to increase and enhance athlete philanthropy, and he is the Director of Special Olympics in New Orleans.

Additionally, Professor Feldman has been the on-air legal analyst for the NFL Network for 10 years, was the sports law contributor for the now-defunct Grantland.com, and is regularly quoted in the NY Times, Washington Post, and other national outlets on college sports issues. In 2013, Professor Feldman was awarded the President’s Award for Graduation and Professional Teaching.

Thomas Mitchell, ‘06 - Panelist

Associate Athletics Director for Compliance
Purdue University - Division of Intercollegiate Athletics
Tom Mitchell was promoted to the role of associate athletics director for compliance in July of 2016.

A member of the athletics department’s senior administrative staff, he is responsible for overseeing all areas of compliance operations for Purdue Athletics. Prior to his promotion, he served as assistant athletics director from 2013 to 2016 and as director of compliance from 2010 to 2013. An eight-year member of the National Association for Athletics Compliance, Mitchell currently is serving a four-year term on the board of directors and previously served on the Education Committee from 2014 to 2019 and the Legislation & Governance Committee from 2013 to 2014. Mitchell presented at the organization’s annual convention in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2018. Mitchell also serves on the NCAA Eligibility Center Division I Advisory Group and the NCAA Academic and Membership Affairs Advisory Group.

Before coming to Purdue, Mitchell served as an assistant director for compliance at Ohio State University beginning in November of 2007. He oversaw the compliance department's internship program and served as the primary compliance contact for men's basketball, field hockey, women's golf, men's lacrosse, men's and women's swimming & diving, synchronized swimming, men's and women's tennis, and wrestling.

Prior to his stint at Ohio State, Mitchell served as the assistant director for compliance at the University of Southern California. He was responsible for providing interpretations of NCAA and Pac- 10 Conference legislation to the athletics department, educating coaches and student-athletes, and monitoring compliance procedures.

Previously, Mitchell worked at the NCAA in Membership Services, initially through an externship and then as an assistant coordinator.

A native of Carmel, Indiana, Mitchell earned his bachelor's degree from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University-Bloomington in 2000. He then worked in the financial services industry as a sales manager, client services representative and broker/dealer document specialist. Mitchell received his juris doctorate from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 2006.

Gloria Nevarez - Panelist

Commissioner, West Coast Conference

In April 2018, Gloria Nevarez was selected to serve as the fourth full-time Commissioner in the 66- year history of the West Coast Conference. Nevarez is one of ten female conference commissioners currently serving in Division I Athletics and is the first Latin American to ascend to the commissioner's chair in Division I. She is currently serving on the NCAA’s Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee, a group responsible for Division I men’s basketball policy, as well as the NCAA Transfer Working Group.

Since becoming Commissioner, Nevarez has shaped nearly every facet of the internal and external operations of the Conference. In the last two years, she has directed major overhauls to the conference’s branding, expanding the league’s national television contracts, adding a long-term title sponsor for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and launching groundbreaking social justice initiatives. She represents the Conference on national policy issues and advises WCC Presidents on current issues such as NCAA policy development on name, image and likeness, the evolving transfer rules and social justice initiatives.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Nevarez guided the conference to a safe conclusion of the 2020 UCU WCC Basketball Tournaments working in conjunction with local and state health agencies. In the weeks and months following the subsequent shutdown of collegiate sports, Nevarez worked tirelessly with university presidents and athletic directors to ensure that the WCC is represented on the national, state and local levels in determining when and how competition can resume safely. In addition, Nevarez closed the in-person conference office and guided the WCC staff to a remote model emphasizing maximum flexibility and extensive collaboration.

Under Nevarez’ leadership, the WCC became the first Division I conference to adopt a diversity hiring initiative, the groundbreaking “Russell Rule” adopted in July of 2020. All WCC schools are required to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the final candidate pool for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach and full-time assistant coaching search. Named in honor of legendary Bill Russell – a two-time WCC and NCAA Champion, Olympic Gold Medalist and 11-time NBA Champion – the rule will be monitored by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) founded by Dr. Richard Lapchick, which will produce an annual race and gender report card for the WCC and its member institutions.

Directed by Nevarez, the WCC embarked on a comprehensive rebranding initiative to bring consistency across all platforms. After an exhaustive and collaborative six-month review with WCC stakeholders, the brand, reflective of the mission and values of the WCC schools was refreshed with a new brand identity.

In her second full year on the job, Nevarez renegotiated the media rights agreement for the Conference, resulting in unprecedented levels of national exposure for the league, including an updated eight year agreement with ESPN and the addition of two national television partners in CBS Sports and Stadium. The exposure of WCC’s men’s basketball has nearly doubled from coast-to-coast. WCC Basketball has enjoyed a long history of success in Las Vegas and Nevarez strengthened those relationships, securing University Credit Union (UCU) as a long-term title sponsor for the 2019 WCC Championship events and signing a contract extension with the Orleans Arena, home for the WCC men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Last season, the Conference significantly enhanced the fan experience and increased engagement initiatives in Las Vegas.

While the 2020 winter and springs seasons were largely overshadowed by the COVID-19 global pandemic, the WCC Presidents and Nevarez made significant positive changes to its governance structure with an emphasis on social justice initiatives, promoting the voices of student-athletes at the conference level and unveiling the Ethnic Diversity Initiative (EDI) with the groundbreaking “Russell Rule” at the forefront.

In June of 2019, student-athletes were added to the governance structure at conference-wide executive meetings. The WCC STARS are included in all WCC Council governance meetings to ensure that the voices of the student-athletes are heard during the decision-making process that impacts their campus experiences. The league also sent representatives from each member school to a mental health summit to collaborate on learning and best practices.

In November of 2019, the WCC launched its first foray into the esports space with six institutions sponsoring teams competing in multiple tournaments capped by the 2020 College League of Legends Season.