Syracuse Law Hosts New Competition Focusing on NIL

After competing in an intercollegiate competition on professional sports negotiations earlier this year, Cody Pearson L’27 and Will Baldwin L’27 started brainstorming about creating a unique competition at Syracuse University College of Law that would combine developing advocacy skills and the growing interest in sports law among the student body. 

This September, Pearson and Baldwin’s idea came to fruition when law students, alumni, and other sports-related professionals gathered in Dineen Hall for the Travis H.D. Lewin Advocacy Honor Society’s inaugural Syracuse Name, Image and Likeness Negotiation Competition (SNILC) and NIL Symposium. Sixteen teams from around the country participated in the competition to hone their contract negotiation, oral advocacy, and deal making skills in the continually evolving area of NIL.

Putting Together a Winning Team

Leading up to the competition, Pearson and Baldwin quickly built a network of faculty, staff, and alumni to help them jump start the idea, including Michael Mariani, executive director of Syracuse Law’s Advocacy Program, who helped them craft a formal proposal.

One of their first connections came from a brief meeting the students had two years prior when they met alumnus Daniel Greene L’16, at a tailgate. Fast forward to early 2026, and Pearson and Baldwin passed their idea by Greene, a Syracuse-area attorney and a prominent voice in the NIL space who devotes much of his practice to collegiate and professional sports. In addition, the two students approached Professor of Practice David Meluni of the University’s Falk College of Sport, who established the first NIL course in sports management in the country; and Professor of Law John Wolohan G ’18, a sports lawyer, consultant, and author affiliated with both the Law School and Falk. All three were very supportive of bringing a competition of this kind to Syracuse Law. 

“We were able to pitch our idea knowing that we already had three exceptionally knowledgeable people willing to help get this competition established,” says Baldwin of the 30-page proposal submitted to Todd Berger, Bond, Schoeneck & King Distinguished Professor of law and faculty director of Syracuse Law’s Advocacy Programs. 

Once Baldwin and Pearson got the green light, they quickly began reaching out to practicing NIL attorneys and professionals to come to Syracuse to judge the competition. Their first major connection was Ben Chase of Sandberg Phoenix, who leads the firm’s NIL, sports and entertainment practice, and was eager to be a judge. In addition, Sandberg Phoenix agreed to sponsor the competition.

Using LinkedIn and firm websites, Baldwin and Pearson were able to identify other potential candidates. Fortunately, there was a lot of interest in the competition, and many said yes, including Ken Knight L’21, a former Division I athlete and founder and CEO of W3 Sports Group; and Sydney Weiskopf of the Lyda Law Firm, who represents athletes, entertainers, and businesses in sports and entertainment law, focusing on NIL, NCAA eligibility, IP and general business law. Ultimately, Chase, Knight, and Weiskopf went on to judge the championship round of the NIL competition. 

As each judge was secured, Baldwin and Pearson posted the names on LinkedIn, which resulted in emails and calls from others eager to participate. Ultimately, 17 individuals with ties to sports and the law signed on to judge the competition.

“We thought it might take two or three years to gather the kind of interest and support we got almost immediately,” says Pearson of the enthusiastic response.

Huddling Together to Negotiate a Deal

When the weekend of the competition arrived, 16 two-person teams from 12 law schools across the country, including two teams from Syracuse Law, competed in the SNILC. 

“We were pleased with the turnout. Most law schools don’t have an attachment to a big athletic program, so the Syracuse brand and its long-standing Division I sports programs held a lot of weight,” says Pearson.

The competition consisted of three parts: preliminary rounds followed by an NIL symposium on Friday and the final rounds on Saturday. 

The first day saw student teams negotiating using fact patterns around an athlete and a company looking to close an NIL deal. 

“We wrote closed universe fact patterns, so the teams didn’t have to do a lot of outside research but were given as much information as they needed,” says Baldwin, who, along with Pearson and Mariani, wrote all fact patterns for the competition. “It was much more a test of negotiations skills rather than how much you watched ESPN.”

Says Pearson, “I was sitting on the edge of my seat hoping my fact patterns were effective, and I was really pleased the competition went as well as it did.”

Judges observed and took notes, never interrupting the interactions, and scored each team according to a pre-established rubric on team work, creativity, professionalism, negotiation skills, and more. At the end of the first day, the judges chose eight teams to move forward.

No Sitting on the Sidelines

Friday’s competition was followed by a networking banquet and an NIL Symposium, where leaders in sports law and college athletics spoke on topics that included Attorneys in NIL, The Age of NIL for Institutions, Coaching in NIL, Starting an Agency as a Student, and Athletes and NIL.

The symposium brought in several speakers who broadening the event’s reach beyond the competition itself. Syracuse University’s Rachel Duffy, director of trademark licensing, and Megan Turner Travis, director of athletic compliance, offered a rare look at the institutional side of NIL. Syracuse coaches Regy Thorpe, head coach of the women’s lacrosse team, and Natasha Adair, associate head coach of the women’s basketball team, as well as Mykala Walker, the program’s first-ever women’s basketball general manager, spoke candidly about how NIL is reshaping roster-building and team culture from the coaching side. Syracuse University athletes David Omopariola (football) and Hailey Schuemann (women’s track & field) joined the closing panel to give student-athletes a direct voice in a conversation usually dominated by lawyers and administrators.

“We wanted this event to be more than just an academic experience. Offering additional time to interact and learn more about the issues surrounding NIL gave incentive for more students and professionals to be a part of our event,” says Baldwin. 

The Day of the Big Game

On Saturday, the remaining eight teams went head-to-head in a semifinal round with a new set of fact patterns using examples of big-name college athletes negotiating to enter the transfer portal.

The judges ultimately narrowed the field to two teams: St. Mary’s University School of Law from Texas, and  Chapman University Law School from California. They showed off their finest negotiating skills in a hypothetical scenario where grocery store Wegman’s and Syracuse Men’s Basketball were negotiating over a high-level athlete’s name, image, and likeness appearing on a cereal box. 

In the end, judges chose the team of Nate Montilino and Harper Clayton from Chapman University as the winners of the competition, while Haley Schmidt of St. Mary’s was selected as best overall advocate.

Passing the Ball to the Next Generation

“I’m really proud of Cody, Will, and all of the Syracuse Law students who helped put this together,” says Greene.“They identified an opportunity, and the law school gave them the support and the platform to turn that idea into a first-class, successful event. That says a lot about how forward thinking Syracuse Law students are about where the sports industry is going."

As Pearson and Baldwin prepare to graduate from Syracuse Law and pursue legal careers leading them to opportunities in sports law, they already have plans in place for next year’s competition. This year, they put together committees made up of 2Ls and 1Ls who learned how to keep the competition growing. They are confident the accomplishments of this year’s NIL event will bring in more students and judges in the future.

“I think the success of the NIL competition speaks volumes not only to the level of interest in the topic and the opportunity to enrich our advocacy skills but also of the faculty, students, and alumni of Syracuse Law who helped make this happen,” says Baldwin. “The feedback we got from this inaugural competition was outstanding, so we’ll take the win!”