Tom Knecht 4/6/24 Tom Knecht 4/6/24

The AAU and NCAA’s Battle for Control of Amateur Athletics

One of the thorniest problems in the history of American sports concerned which organization governed amateur athletics: the AAU or the NCAA. The conflict spanned over 50 years and repeatedly threatened the United States’ participation in the Olympic Games. The U.S. government finally resolved the issue in 1978 with the passage of the Amateur Athletics Act..

Tom Knecht 7/9/22 Tom Knecht 7/9/22

Five Lessons on the U.S. Congress

The five things everyone should know about the U.S. Congress.

Tom Knecht 7/7/22 Tom Knecht 7/7/22

Congress and Sports

This article examines the nearly 3,000 bills and resolutions on sports introduced in Congress from 1972 to 2022. There are a number of Constitutional provisions that allow Congress to regulate athletics. But while Congress introduces a lot of sports bills, very few become public law.

Tom Knecht 5/1/22 Tom Knecht 5/1/22

Athletes In U.S. elections

Ex-athletes make amazing political candidates.

Tom Knecht 11/1/21 Tom Knecht 11/1/21

A Useful Threat: the U.S. Government and Sports’ antitrust exemption

From 1973 to 2023, Congress introduced 129 bills and resolutions on antitrust and sports, but only three have become law. There are a lot of reasons why a member of Congress might introduce a bill on sports’ antitrust exemptions, including preventing teams from relocating, ending strikes, and stopping blackouts. The threat to take away sports’ antitrust exemption is often enough to get sports to clean up their act.