Sports law will be on tap at the 2025 Annual NAFUSA Conference in D.C. in October! Recent developments in the world of college sports, including the legal and practical issues surrounding name, image and likeness (NIL) agreements and the creation of the College Sports Commission, are hot issues in sports AND legal environments. How will college sports be impacted? What roles will attorneys have in advising athletes or other affected clients? What will regulations look like? These and so many other questions surrounding the “ever-changing landscape of college athletics” will be addressed in two separate sessions on NAFUSA’s conference program next month in D.C.

On Thursday, October 9, Jay Bilas, ESPN’s top college basketball analyst, widely known for his thorough knowledge of the game and his professional, clever style, will be interviewed by NAFUSA Vice President Tim Purdon. Jay was a four-year starter at Duke University under Mike Krzyzewski helping to lead Duke to the No. 1 ranking in 1986 and set the NCAA record for the most wins in a single season. While a player at Duke, he was appointed to the NCAA’s Long-Range Planning Committee., serving from 1984-1986.

He played professionally before returning to Duke in 1990 and attending Duke Law School while serving as an assistant coach under Krzyzewski. During that time the Blue Devils won back-to-back National Championships in 1991 and 1992.

Jay has spoken and lectured at Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics, The University of North Carolina, Tennessee, and many other great schools. His extensive knowledge of both the sports and legal worlds and his witty style have made him a very popular speaker. He has won too many awards and accolades to list here – including being named Sports Illustrated Best Analyst in College Basketball three times. And he is a practicing attorney.

It will be interesting to hear more about Jay Bilas’s exciting career during Tim’s interview and to hear his thoughts about NIL, what the impact on college sports has been so far, his prediction for the future and where it stands today. The interview will discuss the legal implications of NIL and the new sports commission.

The next day, NAFUSA Board Member Conner Eldridge will lead a panel of experts who are very familiar with the legal and practical implications of NIL, the College Sports Commission and potential impact of revenue sharing on Division One athletic programs and universities. The panel is entitled, “Show Me the Money: The Current and Everchanging Landscape of Collegiate Athletics, NIL, and Thoughts on Justice in College Sports.”

The panel will include former NAFUSA board members Ron Machen and Greg Brower and NAFUSA member Dan French. They each bring a wealth of knowledge and interesting viewpoints to different aspects of the issues surrounding collegiate sports today. Greg Brower served as the Chief Global Compliance Officer of Wynn Resorts, a publicly-trading hospitality and gaming company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and brings his knowledge of the legal gambling industry to the discussion of its potential impact on college sports. Ron Machen is an experienced and well-regarded litigator specializing in representing clients, including the NCAA, in complex high-stakes situations. Dan French has a distinguished career spanning multiple related fields within the legal profession. Prior to his current position as co-chair of Barclay Damon’s Higher Education and White Collar & Government Investigations Practice, he was the senior vice president and general counsel at Syracuse University.

Many thanks to our Conference Committee for bringing these and the other great presentations to the line-up for NAFUSA’s 2025 Annual Conference.