http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/1...willing-jr

Interesting ESPN Outsides the Lines report on Pat Swilling Jr - a Tulsa basketball player (now trying to play football there after using up his basketball eligibility). He has a long history of sexual assault charges and this lawsuit charges that Tulsa wasn't diligent in their recruitment of him - that his past history should have prevented him from going to Tulsa and that the university didn't protect its students properly.

The most interesting aspect to this suit to me is the potential down the road for larger lawsuits raised against the most profitable football programs. Tulsa is just a drop in the bucket - revenue-wise - but what happens if a similar lawsuit is raised in the future against an Alabama or Texas A&M, just to name a couple of schools (not saying they've recruited similar players - I'm just naming two schools with bigger revenue streams).

Mark my words - the new money figures that the top schools will generate in the future are going to create some monumental lawsuits. It's an unfortunate but inevitable result of the litigious world we live in.

(08-19-2014 12:08 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/1...willing-jr

Interesting ESPN Outsides the Lines report on Pat Swilling Jr - a Tulsa basketball player (now trying to play football there after using up his basketball eligibility). He has a long history of sexual assault charges and this lawsuit charges that Tulsa wasn't diligent in their recruitment of him - that his past history should have prevented him from going to Tulsa and that the university didn't protect its students properly.

The most interesting aspect to this suit to me is the potential down the road for larger lawsuits raised against the most profitable football programs. Tulsa is just a drop in the bucket - revenue-wise - but what happens if a similar lawsuit is raised in the future against an Alabama or Texas A&M, just to name a couple of schools (not saying they've recruited similar players - I'm just naming two schools with bigger revenue streams).

Mark my words - the new money figures that the top schools will generate in the future are going to create some monumental lawsuits. It's an unfortunate but inevitable result of the litigious world we live in.

Reading through this story in a couple of other articles, this lawsuit hardly seems frivolous. I mean this guy coincidentally involved in 3 different sexual incidents? I'd say Tulsa has some explaining to do.

(08-19-2014 12:08 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Mark my words - the new money figures that the top schools will generate in the future are going to create some monumental lawsuits. It's an unfortunate but inevitable result of the litigious world we live in.

It's funny, the deeper the pockets, the greater the thirst for justice.

(08-19-2014 08:37 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 12:08 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Mark my words - the new money figures that the top schools will generate in the future are going to create some monumental lawsuits. It's an unfortunate but inevitable result of the litigious world we live in.

It's funny, the deeper the pockets, the greater the thirst for justice.

Then again, for an ardent redistributionist, lawsuits represent the absolute paragon of economic policy: not only do they transfer huge sums of money from some parties to others, but they do so (1) by edict, (2) with great inefficiency, (3) to the enrichment of an administrative class, (4) with little empirical long-term benefit to the intended recipients, and (5) based on an official determination of which party is more "deserving". It really is a statist's dream -- a consummation devoutly to be wished!

(08-19-2014 10:46 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 08:37 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 12:08 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Mark my words - the new money figures that the top schools will generate in the future are going to create some monumental lawsuits. It's an unfortunate but inevitable result of the litigious world we live in.

It's funny, the deeper the pockets, the greater the thirst for justice.

Then again, for an ardent redistributionist, lawsuits represent the absolute paragon of economic policy: not only do they transfer huge sums of money from some parties to others, but they do so (1) by edict, (2) with great inefficiency, (3) to the enrichment of an administrative class, (4) with little empirical long-term benefit to the intended recipients, and (5) based on an official determination of which party is more "deserving". It really is a statist's dream -- a consummation devoutly to be wished!

If Tulsa/Tulsa's administration is found guilty of these charges, is there another alternative outside of jail time or probation? What would be the alternative punishment that you would suggest for a guilty party?

I agree that it is wrong to sue just to sue, or to sue solely out of a desire to increase your own savings account, but without much of a legal background, I can only think of jailing/probation those determined as being guilty as a possible punishment.

This lawsuit could prove very damaging to Tulsa's reputation and the standing of athletics within the University of Tulsa. Tulsa is one of those 'country club universities' that promotes itself as a small, safe academic community where relatively wealthy parents can send their kids. It is not a particularly distinguished institution; many other comparable institutions compete with it. The students that consider Tulsa have many other options over where to attend school, so the news that Tulsa didn't perform due diligence on a student-athlete with quite a history of sexual assault charges is most certainly not good for the brand.

(08-19-2014 10:46 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 08:37 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 12:08 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Mark my words - the new money figures that the top schools will generate in the future are going to create some monumental lawsuits. It's an unfortunate but inevitable result of the litigious world we live in.

It's funny, the deeper the pockets, the greater the thirst for justice.

Then again, for an ardent redistributionist, lawsuits represent the absolute paragon of economic policy: not only do they transfer huge sums of money from some parties to others, but they do so (1) by edict, (2) with great inefficiency, (3) to the enrichment of an administrative class, (4) with little empirical long-term benefit to the intended recipients, and (5) based on an official determination of which party is more "deserving". It really is a statist's dream -- a consummation devoutly to be wished!

I agree with your basic premise, including the malignancy we all suffer at the hands of our hyper-litigious and grossly over-lawyered country.
However, to be just a bit more precise: this isn't a statist's dream, it's their Achilles Heel. Saying this is their dream would be like saying that a laissez-faire capitalist's dream is the elimination of the middle class.

(08-19-2014 05:46 PM)Barney Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 10:46 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  Then again, for an ardent redistributionist, lawsuits represent the absolute paragon of economic policy: not only do they transfer huge sums of money from some parties to others, but they do so (1) by edict, (2) with great inefficiency, (3) to the enrichment of an administrative class, (4) with little empirical long-term benefit to the intended recipients, and (5) based on an official determination of which party is more "deserving". It really is a statist's dream -- a consummation devoutly to be wished!

However, to be just a bit more precise: this isn't a statist's dream, it's their Achilles Heel.

Not at all -- it would only be an Achilles's heel to someone who cared about results. Blindness, like shamelessness, is its own form of armor.

I have never known a committed leftist who, when you come right down to it, would not consider (1), (3) and (5) to be positive virtues, or who, in comparison with those virtues, would not consider (2) and (4) to be, if acknowledged at all, largely irrelevant.

(08-19-2014 05:46 PM)Barney Wrote:  Saying this is their dream would be like saying that a laissez-faire capitalist's dream is the elimination of the middle class.

Given that markets are what created the middle class and oligarchy is one of its most insidious enemies, this is a bizarre statement.

(08-20-2014 08:01 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 05:46 PM)Barney Wrote:  Saying this is their dream would be like saying that a laissez-faire capitalist's dream is the elimination of the middle class.

Given that markets are what created the middle class and oligarchy is one of its most insidious enemies, this is a bizarre statement.

Moderators - time to move this to the Quad ....

(08-20-2014 08:27 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Moderators - time to move this to the Quad ....

My bad - sorry about that. I can delete my posts (I'm sure they were more fun to write than they are to read anyway)

(08-20-2014 09:00 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(08-20-2014 08:27 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Moderators - time to move this to the Quad ....

My bad - sorry about that. I can delete my posts (I'm sure they were more fun to write than they are to read anyway)

I think this discussion is apropos to college sports.