Brooklyn Law To Field NCAA Basketball Team in 2010-11

Taking advantage of a little-used loophole in NCAA regulations, Brooklyn Law School has just announced that it will be fielding a Division 1 basketball squad, starting only 18 months from now.  The team, tentatively called the Barristers, is expected to play in the mid-size Colonial Athletic Association.  I think this is pretty big news.  Admitting a class of 3-5 talented basketball players who have reasonable LSAT's and - perhaps most problematically – have not played four years of college ball, is going to be a brutal task each year.  There are a ton of costs that are going to be associated with this move.  To name a few: renting stadium space (early indicators are that they'll play at Levien Gym at Columbia); hiring a basketball coaching staff;  investing in both staff and software for recruiting; and paying for scholarships.  I worry that the school will tilt towards admitting college juniors with one or two years of basketball under their belt.  And even with all of this, you have to wonder: will Brooklyn Law be able to win?

There is an upside of course – otherwise Dean Joan Wexler wouldn't be doing this.  Reputation.  A stand-alone law school always has to battle the fact that there is no brand outside of the law school itself.  Imagine the press that will accrue if Brooklyn can even break into the final 64 one year.  The story – law school team busts into brackets – would capture a huge amount of press.  And I guess we can assume this team is going to be playing some seriously smart ball.  These are grad students after all!

But maybe this solves a bit of a mystery.  Many of us wondered why Tony Sebok left Brooklyn and headed across the river to Cardozo this year.   He may have worried that this commitment to Division 1 basketball would drown the law school financially. By the way, have you heard anyting about an NYU merger?