Posted on 04/18/2007 7:39:12 AM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- A long-running dispute over recruiting high school athletes has reached the Supreme Court, where justices are being asked to decide whether a Tennessee school's free-speech rights outweigh rules limiting contacts with student athletes.
The case involves Brentwood Academy, a wealthy private school south of Nashville, and the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which governs high school sports in the state.
Brentwood Academy sent a letter inviting 12 eighth-graders to attend spring football practice in 1997. The students' parents already had signed contracts and paid deposits to attend the high school.
The athletic association said the letter violated rules against recruiting high school players, and it hit the school with a $3,000 fine and four years' probation. School officials unsuccessfully appealed twice before suing.
Arguments scheduled for today will be the second the Supreme Court has heard in the Brentwood Academy case. In 2001, the court ruled 5-4 in favor of Brentwood, saying the athletic association acted in a quasi-governmental capacity and could be sued.
A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of the school, saying the letter amounts to protected speech under the First Amendment. If that ruling stands, it would prevent all high school associations from enforcing recruiting rules, say lawyers for the state athletic association.
Brentwood Academy officials say they support rules to prevent giving cash or presents to football recruits. But headmaster Curt Masters, the school's second since 1997, said the letter was a harmless note to students already signed -- with money paid -- to attend the school.
The NCAA, the National School Boards Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations have filed briefs supporting the Tennessee athletic association saying broad powers are needed to protect children by enforcing recruiting rules.
Brentwood Academy has the support of the National Women's Law Center, which is worried about holding government accountable for gender discrimination, the Association of Christian Schools International and the National Association of Independent Schools.
A ruling is expected by the end of June.
And it’s no wonder that the NCAA is interested. If the TSSAA loses, all of a sudden the NCAA’s censorship of Indian Names looks vulnerable to legal challenge.
Well I know the summer before I started the 9th grade I started practicing and weight training with the football team.
It was a standard practice for all high schools in the area.
If the kids were already going to the school, wtf is the Athletic Association doing? In addition to free speech, there is the right to free association - indeed the more the newbies know of their soon to be fellow classmates, the better.
What a novel idea!
“And it’s no wonder that the NCAA is interested. If the TSSAA loses, all of a sudden the NCAA’s censorship of Indian Names looks vulnerable to legal challenge.”
TSSAA should lose. They abused their power. They applied a recruiting violation where it should not be applied.
NCAA could be sued now, if anyone had any guts. I’m surprised none of the schools affected did. That is a free speech violation as well.
Our rising 9th graders, 8th graders this year, have spring training starting in May at the High School, they are bused over from the middle school.
I don’t understand why 10-15 top football schools haven’t simply decided to withdraw from the NCAA altogether.
Looks to me more like the Tn. athletic group is more jealous of the private school and don’t want them to be able to find the best players among their students-even though the kids’ parents have paid for them to go there. What a crock!
Exactly. How many government high schools distribute information about summer activities to 8th graders at the local junior high?
I agree it is about free speech. Just yesterday, a NCAA committte recommended that text messages from coaches to potential recruits will be illegal come August if an NCAA governing body approves. It will, of course. While recruiting can go to extremes to grab the latest high school “phenom”, text messages seem to me to be much less obtrusive than having a coach camped out on the kid’s front door. The athlete can always delete the text message if he wants to. It is simply a coach using the kid’s favored method of communication in order to market his school and team.
I think the NCAA is once again over-reaching. Myles Brand is certainly no friend of college athletics.
You are correct. Myles Brand is a leftist scumbag of the highest order. The idiot will probably ban booing at College football games because it might hurt someone’s feelings.
Can’t wait for him to leave.
Because there are other sports besides football?
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