Name, image & likeness, an interview with sports antitrust economist Andy Schwarz

Sport occupies a central space in the American psyche. We tell ourselves all manner of myth about our heroes who wage symbolic combat on our behalf. One of these is that our sports are only pure if the combatants are “amateurs,” but how does that make sense in a world where a member of the marching band can be paid to play a music gig without risking her music scholarship, but the point guard on the basketball team can’t be compensated for signing an autograph without being barred from her sport? On Andy Schwarz’s first day at his first job out of grad school, he was handed 10 depositions and told to make sense of Al Davis’ ill-fated 1995 lawsuit against the NFL. The Raiders lost the suit and Schwarz’s career was launched. In the 24 years since, he’s worked on some of the highest-profile sports antitrust cases of our times. For the last half decade, Andy has worked tirelessly to right the imbalance of power that exists between the business of college sports and the athletes who the NCAA currently prevents from profiting from their oftentimes fleeting fame on the gridiron, court, and pitch. A major milestone in this work was realized on September 30 of this year when California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB-206, legislation unanimously passed by the California State Assembly that prevents colleges and universities in the state from restricting a college athlete’s ability to be compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness. Andy helps us make sense of it all through the course of a wide-ranging interview that includes going into some depth on his latest venture, The Historical Basketball League, an attempt again to give college athletes a fair shot at fair compensation. If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a “league” and a “cartel” then this is the podcast for you!