4-1/ You serve as legal counsel to a legislative committee. One of the members of your committee has indicated that she wants you to draft legislation that would recognize a property interest in participation in intercollegiate athletics. The legislator is irate because her daughter was not permitted to try out for the football team at our public university. Her daughter believes that she could earn an athletic scholarship if she had the opportunity to demonstrate her ability as a kicker and that she could increase her future job opportunities by playing college football. When the legislator and her daughter asked the coach why she was not permitted to try out, the coach simply said he thought it was best. When he was passed with further reasons, he simply said he did not want to offer any period when the legislator discussed the matter with her lawyer, he said it was unlikely that a court would review why her daughter was not being permitted to participate because she does not have a property interest that would trigger federal due process protection. Was the lawyer’s advice correct? What advice would you have given to the legislator regarding the advantages and disadvantages of a law that would create a property interest in athletic participation?
4-2/ You are the athletic director at a major State (public) University, and the Muslim student athlete has asked to meet with you to discuss a dispute he has with his coach. The coach insists that the student athletes maintain a rigorous diet which includes eating certain meals each day. The Muslim student wishes to follow his religious conscience and fast on certain days and avoid eating some of the meals prescribed by the coach. He also eats more vegetarian diet than the high protein fare established by the coach. Before the meeting, you call the coach, and he says that although he respects the student athlete for his religious conviction, it is imperative that he eat with the team for health purposes and to maintain team morale. He is fearful that yielding to this student athlete’s religious beliefs would simply open a Pandora’s box, permitting student athletes to contrive all kinds of reasons for getting out of his strict dietary regimen. The coach also indicated that the diet was devised in conjunction with his trainer and is believed to maximize performance on the part of the student athletes. What do you say to the student athlete and coach?
