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Latest Analysis

Browse the latest legal alerts, case analyses, explainers, and strategic commentary on the forces reshaping sports and entertainment.

College Sports & NIL

The NCAA Is Eliminating Waiver Discretion. It May Be Outsourcing It to Courts.

Sep 14, 2026

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10 min read

The NCAA Is Eliminating Waiver Discretion. It May Be Outsourcing It to Courts.

Division I’s new age-based eligibility system is designed to replace case-by-case waivers with clearer rules and narrow exceptions. That may make the rulebook easier to administer. It may also move the hardest eligibility decisions out of Indianapolis and into courtrooms around the country.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde

Business & Deals

+2

College Sports Has a Payroll. It Still Doesn’t Have a Pay System.

Sep 12, 2026

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11 min read

College Sports Has a Payroll. It Still Doesn’t Have a Pay System.

The House settlement answered whether schools could pay athletes. It did not answer how they should divide the money. Now a backward-looking damages formula is becoming a forward-looking payroll model—and Title IX, contract law, antitrust, and labor pressure are waiting on the other side.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde

Business & Deals

+1

Revenue Sharing Is Turning Athletic Departments Into Front Offices

Sep 12, 2026

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9 min read

Revenue Sharing Is Turning Athletic Departments Into Front Offices

College sports did not merely decide to start paying athletes. It created a capped player-compensation market with finite roster spots, transfer mobility, multiyear contracts, and millions of dollars riding on personnel decisions. The result is unmistakable: athletic departments are beginning to function less like traditional school administrators and more like professional front offices—without yet having the labor system that makes professional front offices work.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde

College Sports & NIL

College Sports Cannot Run on Eligibility by ZIP Code

Sep 12, 2026

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10 min read

College Sports Cannot Run on Eligibility by ZIP Code

Courts are increasingly treating NCAA eligibility rules as commercial restraints while emergency lawsuits produce different answers about who can play. A national sport cannot operate indefinitely on temporary restraining orders, which is why the eligibility wars are becoming an argument for federal legislation—or some other source of legally durable national governance.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde

College Sports & NIL

Eligibility Litigation Is Becoming College Sports’ Newest Form of Free Agency

Sep 12, 2026

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10 min read

Eligibility Litigation Is Becoming College Sports’ Newest Form of Free Agency

Courts are no longer simply deciding whether one athlete gets another season. Emergency eligibility orders can put players back into the market, reopen transfer opportunities, reshape rosters and compensation decisions, and force conferences to defend competitive boundaries before the underlying law is settled.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde

College Sports & NIL

The Five-Year Eligibility Rule Will Create Problems Nobody Has Fully Priced In Yet

Sep 12, 2026

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10 min read

The Five-Year Eligibility Rule Will Create Problems Nobody Has Fully Priced In Yet

The NCAA made eligibility simpler. It may have made roster building much harder. Giving athletes a fifth year does not merely extend careers; it changes the economics of recruiting, retention, development and even the line between college and professional sports.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde

College Sports & NIL

+1

The NCAA Isn’t Losing the Rulebook. It’s Losing Its Monopoly on It.

Sep 12, 2026

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9 min read

The NCAA Isn’t Losing the Rulebook. It’s Losing Its Monopoly on It.

The SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 are beginning to act less like regional scheduling alliances and more like independent regulators. College sports is not becoming ungoverned. It is becoming governed by several overlapping governments—and that may be the most important structural change in the industry.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde

Business & Deals

+2

What Is a Morals Clause?

Sep 12, 2026

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8 min read

What Is a Morals Clause?

The contract language that can turn a scandal, accusation, arrest, old social-media post, or reputational crisis into a right to suspend or terminate a deal.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde

Business & Deals

+1

What Are “Backend Points” in an Entertainment Deal?

Sep 12, 2026

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8 min read

What Are “Backend Points” in an Entertainment Deal?

A percentage is the easy part. The real deal is what the percentage is applied to.

Jesse Wilde
Jesse Wilde
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The Game Behind The Game

Sports & Entertainment Law + Business Analysis

© 2026 The Game Behind The Game

The Game Behind The Game provides commentary and analysis for informational purposes only. Nothing published here constitutes legal advice, creates an attorney-client relationship, or should be relied upon as a substitute for advice from qualified counsel regarding a particular matter. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s law firm, its attorneys, or its clients.

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