ASU football's redshirt senior starting quarterback Taylor Kelly and redshirt junior backup quarterback Mike Bercovici practice at Camp Tontozona. Both have been admitted to the first cohort of the University's new Sports Law and Business program. (Photos by Andrew Ybanez)ASU starting quarterback, redshirt senior Taylor Kelly, and his backup — redshirt junior Mike Bercovici — were recently accepted into the University's new Sports Law and Business program.
The pair of gunslinging QBs were admitted into a select group of fewer than 30 students, trading in clock management drills and complex playbooks for contract negotiations and legal studies, forging ahead into the other end of the sports industry spectrum.
The move comes in the midst of a new NCAA ruling designed to grant the "Big Five" conferences more autonomy and to properly compensate student-athletes, —who are increasingly becoming more aware of the value of their image and likenesses while schools churn out multimillion dollar profits from their performances — originally spurred by a group of former Northwestern players who voted to unionize and seek recognition from the National Labor Relations Board back in April.
The program is a joint venture between the W. P. Carey School of Business and Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, which is offering two sports law graduate degrees that can be obtained in a year of study.
ASU athletic director Ray Anderson will be a professor of practice in both programs.
Reach the assistant sports editor at smodrich@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @StefanJModrich
