Weekly Column: The Law Always Plays in the Postseason

In this week’s column, California Sports Lawyer® CEO, Founder, and Managing Attorney Jeremy M. Evans explores how the Big Ten’s playoff ambitions and Major League Baseball’s push for realignment and expansion reveal the high-stakes legal and media battles reshaping modern sports.

Expansion, after all, is not just about sports, it is about power, the law, and revenue—all of which are needed for growth, influence, and survival.

You can read the full column below. (Past columns can be found, here).

As the Big Ten conference and Major League Baseball (MLB) are considering or advocating for expansion of their respective postseasons, coming back to foundational principles is an important part of the process. The legal ramifications are important in determining how new divisions are made, where and how expansion occurs, and the rules and regulations that need to be followed to accomplish the goals. The Big Ten would like to see a 28-team College Football Playoff (CFP), while MLB would like to see two new expansion teams (likely Nashville, Tennessee, and Salt Lake City, Utah) with a geographical reorganization of the divisions to ease travel and timing concerns.

The intentions of the Big Ten and MLB make sense as it will bring more visibility to the players, teams, and schools of each entity. It also means more control of certain markets and timing/scheduling for television. The expansion will also increase television dollar shares.

MLB has an antitrust exemption and especially with expansion as new teams would be added, not moved or taken away. MLB would have little to no concern with the expansion model. The Big Ten would only be adding more colleagues to proverbial pie and of course invitation would be based on success thus avoiding major antitrust concerns.

Part of MLB’s concern has to do with its upcoming collective bargaining negotiation with the MLB Players Association (MLBPA). The negotiation will center around a concern from the players and owners as to a potential salary cap and revenue split with specific reference to media dollars. MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred is currently negotiating national contracts for baseball games as ESPN did not wish to continue under similar or expanded terms of the existing deal.

The Big Ten wants more control over the playoff structure as a new structure that expands to 28-teams would give the Power Four conferences more automatic bids. The good thing about an expanded playoff would be more early playoff games being played at home or close to home for the CFP and based on geography in the context of MLB. These changes would also mean more dollars for the universities, teams, and league.

In the case of MLB, the issue to solve is whether streaming, regional sports networks, or team specific deals are better. For bigger markets, the RSN’s seem to work well and have been successful. For the smaller and medium market teams, it seems that a national model is better. All in all, a national model is probably best for MLB as it looks to gain viewership and exposure for all teams more akin to the National Football League model.

Part of the issue with the uncertainty in television and streaming dealmaking is that it lowers future valuations on franchises and further exposes owners as they look to sell or buy sports teams. There has been an influx of team sales in the recent past and much of that is reflective of the high valuation of franchises, but also the uncertainty in some leagues of media sustainability in the streaming age. Expansion, after all, is not just about sports, it is about power, the law, and revenue—all of which are needed for growth, influence, and survival.

About Jeremy M. Evans:

Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.