On the Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition

“What began as a six-team, intra-school event in 2006 has since grown into a major national event. . .

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As front-office people and agents can attest, the preparation for hearings is exhaustive, and there’s an art to the process. . .

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Meanwhile, dozens of bright, ambitious law school students will descend upon the Tulane University campus in New Orleans to chase their personal grail.”

On the Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition:

“It was one of the most entertaining and enlightening baseball and legal experiences I’ve had in some time. . .

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These law students had to face a murderer’s row of experts in the baseball arbitration process, including attorneys, agents and team, league and union employees who spend all or most of their time working on actual arbitration cases.“

On the Tulane Pro Basketball Negotiation Competition:

“Over the last half-decade, what one attendee called the league’s ‘shadow figures’ have come together just a few miles from the French Quarter for an annual gathering of the NBA’s salary-cap experts for its own convention of sorts. . . The days in New Orleans have become what one NBA executive calls ‘the salary-cap version of [the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference]’

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As competitors come to Tulane hoping to be noticed, some team executives attend to scout for someone to hire or for a name to notch away for the future. As they do, the Tulane diaspora across the NBA will continue to expand, and a small competition that started just six years ago will have its next problem to solve: What happens when its gets to be too big?”

On the TPBNC:

“[T]he Tulane Pro Basketball Negotiation Competition (TPBNC) has transformed into the premier competition of its kind in the country. . .

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The TPBNC is described as a basketball think tank that brings together college students and basketball professionals. . .

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And it appears to be at Tulane where future NBA executives are found, and fictional deals get done before the start of free agency.”

On the TPFNC:

“The [Tulane Pro Football Negotiation Competition] . . . is a unique opportunity for the next generation of NFL contract negotiators and agents to dive into the deep end of bargaining dynamics. It’s also an excellent chance to get to meet actual NFL front-office personnel and agents.

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After each competition, the judges excused the participants to do their scoring before bringing each side back separately to give them their feedback.

‘You’re never going to get that in a classroom,’ said Jason Kaner, a 2L from runner-up Villanova who had won the competition last year.”