New IU Indy program to blend sports management and law

When Horizon League Commissioner Julie Lach first heard the proposal for a new sports law program intended to prepare students for leadership roles in the sports industry, she not only thought it was fantastic, but also that it was a need.

Labeled as the first of its kind in Indiana, the recently approved accelerated dual degree in sports law will be offered to Indiana University Indianapolis students starting next summer, and it is set to provide them with expertise in sports management and foundational legal principles—making them a “real differentiator” when applying for leadership positions on college campuses and athletic conference offices, Lach said.

“For those that want to work in sports, it’s not mandated. You don’t have to be a lawyer. You don’t have to have a legal background,” she said, “But I think if you do, it is a point of differentiation.”

How does it work?

The 138-credit-hour program pairs a bachelor’s degree in sport management from IU Indy’s School of Health & Human Sciences with a master’s of jurisprudence from the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law, with the intent of enabling students to gain a tailored understanding of the many inner workings of the sports world.

“By combining sport management with legal training, we’re equipping students with the tools they need to navigate complex industry challenges and emerge as leaders,” said Karen Bravo, dean of IU McKinney

The accelerated nature of the program will allow students to complete both degrees—120 credit hours for their bachelor’s and 18 credit hours for their master’s—in just five years, saving time and money, said David Pierce, chair of IU Indy’s Department of Tourism, Event and Sport Management.

Once students apply and are enrolled in a major in sport management, they can apply for the master of jurisprudence in their junior year. And while they are still considered an undergraduate student, they will be able to take graduate law classes in place of the 12 credit hours intended for undergraduate electives—and at an undergraduate rate.

Students in the program can also gain hands-on experience working on legal issues at a sports property through an undergraduate internship and a graduate externship. There will be several industry partners available for students to work under, but who those partners will be has not been announced yet.

“That’s where the real experiential learning value, you know, certainly comes into play,” Pierce said. “You can get a year of experience in the industry while you’re completing the degree.”

Evolving industry

Lach said she thinks a program like this, and the background it gives students, could set them up for success.

“That positions individuals for not just compliance positions, which obviously they would be equipped to do, but in other leadership roles on campuses and conference offices,” she said.

Lach herself is an actively licensed attorney in Indiana, currently serving as of counsel for Church, Church, Hittle + Antrim’s sports law group, which she said she helped start about 13 years ago after graduating from Millikin University in Illinois, where she played college basketball, and also from IU McKinney.

Lach has grown a substantial resume, being involved in college athletics for 25 years, with over 15 of them being at the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA. Some of her tasks there included investigations and prosecutorial-like work.

Lach joined the Horizon League as its deputy commissioner in 2014, handling everything from media contracts to NCAA governance and compliance. She was named commissioner of the league in 2021, now overseeing all league functions with a special emphasis on strategic planning, membership, television and finances.

Looking back at her time in the industry, Lach noted that the landscape of college sports has “changed so much,” with many different legal parts now intersecting with college sports.

“The biggest changes that have happened in college sports, really, even the last three years, have all been externally imposed, primarily from the legal branch,” Lach said.

Among the prevalent issues today, she noted, are transgender participation, sports betting regulations and college athletes’ rights and Name, Image and Likeness, or NIL.

NIL has gained a swath of attention in the last few years, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 ruled that the NCAA’s rules restricting certain education-related benefits for student-athletes had violated federal antitrust laws. Shortly after the ruling, the NCAA passed its interim NIL policy, formally granting athletes the ability to make a profit from their person.

Many states responded by implementing their own NIL rules, providing additional guidelines to what was in place by the NCAA.

Indiana, however, currently has no NIL law, which means the specific college the athlete attends sets the guidelines for NIL activities, according to Next College Student Athlete, the largest college athletic recruiting program.

NIL’s most up-to-date federal movement happened last week, when several Democratic U.S. Senators introduced the Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement (SAFE) Act, aiming to “codify athletes’ rights and protections in law, expand revenue for all schools, support women’s and Olympic sports and bring much-needed stability to the college sports system.”

If passed through Congress, the SAFE Act would provide federal NIL rights, replace the patchwork state-by-state laws, provide pooling of media rights and protections from agents, and it would preserve the 22% revenue share cap, which resulted from a settlement this summer in House v. NCAA.

What type of student will come out of this program?

Any of those individual changes can be significant to the sports industry itself, Lach said, but looking at them together shows how dramatically different the landscape is now.

“In terms of my daily life five years ago, I spent about 10% or less on legal issues,” she continued. “Now, it’s more like 20 to 25% of my time.”

It’s to the point now that Lach has to provide a briefing document to the League’s members, outlining all the national issues that have some sort of legal tentacle.

“We’ve had to identify what those issues are, what are the associated risks and then what’s our response,” Lach said.

Leaders at IU Indy said the program is intended to meet those year-over-year legal demands by equipping a cohort of trained individuals with knowledge in a wide range of areas.

“I really think people with a degree like this are going to be well-positioned to outcompete people that don’t have that background,” Pierce said. “I feel like it is positioned well to handle the risk and uncertainty of an ever-changing college athletics landscape.”

Jay Jones, commissioner for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, is set to teach a sports law class for the undergraduate portion of the program. From making hotel contracts for a conference tournament to understanding the legal liabilities with event volunteers, students taking his course will learn a practical approach to handling day-to-day legal needs.

“What laws do I need to have a superficial knowledge of, and how do I know when I need help,” Jones said.

Jones, a 2001 law school graduate from Stetson University in St. Petersburg, Florida, spent many years with the NCAA, working in rules compliance and several administrative positions. After two stints at the national level, Jones was named commissioner of the Heartland Conference in 2019.

“What this program does is allow a student to really focus on the important issues that they’re going to see in the workplace—without three years of law loans,” he said. “If you can develop the skill set that law school allows, and do that in less time, then that’s really helpful.”

Turning students into problem-solvers

Since the early days of the program’s development, Pierce said the school had spoken to different leaders across the sports industry to understand how to fashion the curriculum to benefit students for competitive, entry-level jobs that could give them a leg up in leadership positions. From athletics director roles to operating officers, graduates of the program could be the “Swiss Army Knife” for their organizations.

But graduates of the program wouldn’t just be handling the complicated legal issues of an organization like a general counsel, Pierce said. Instead, they would be the “key problem solver on the team,” providing a way to help navigate the legal environment.

“There’s a problem comes up, they can dig in and freaking figure out how to get around it, through it, over it, under it, like whatever,” Pierce said. “Whatever it takes to move a business forward.”•