Sports law is an umbrella term used to describe the legal issues at work in the world of both amateur and professional sports. Sports law overlaps substantially with labor law, contract law, competition or antitrust law, and tort law. Issues like defamation and privacy rights are also an integral aspect of sports law. The area of law was established as a separate and important entity only a few decades ago, coinciding with the rise of player-agents and increased media scrutiny of sports law topics.

Membership is voluntary. The NCAA operates along a series of bylaws that govern the areas of ethical conduct, amateur eligibility, financial aid, recruiting, gender equity, championship events and academic standards. The NCAA has enforcement power and can introduce a series of punishments up to the death penalty, the full shut-down of a sporting activity at an offending college.

Title IX is an increasingly important issue in college sports law. The Act, passed in 1972, makes it illegal for a federally funded institution to discriminate on the basis of sex or gender. In sports law, the piece of legislation often refers to the effort to achieve equality for women's sports in colleges. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is charged with enforcing this legislation. This agency implemented a three-prong tests for schools to adhere to: (1) Are the opportunities for female and male athletes proportionate to their enrollment; (2) Does the school have a history of expanding athletic opportunities for women; (3)Has the school demonstrated success in meeting the needs of its students. In 1995 the Gender in Equity Disclosure Act was passed to require schools to report annually the information publicly on male-female athletic participation rates, recruiting by gender, and financial support. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown University v. Cohen, is an important aspect of litigation for women sports.

The Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels. TSN is owned by CTV Specialty Television, a joint venture of Bell Media (80%) and ESPN (20%).

Bell Media also operates additional TSN-branded properties, including TSN2, TSN Radio 1050, TSN Radio 990, TSN Radio 1290 and two part-time regional feeds, Canadiens on TSN and Jets on TSN.

Licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on April 2, 1984 as Action Canada Sports Network, the channel was launched by the Labatt Brewing Company on September 1st of the same year as "The Sports Network", or "TSN". TSN was formed partly to promote Labatt's flagship products, but also to act as a vehicle for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team (which was also owned by Labatt at the time). In 1989, TSN also launched a sister French language service, Réseau des sports (RDS).

Kenneth L. Shropshire (born February 27, 1955) is an African American author, attorney, consultant, educator, and the David W. Hauck Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Shropshire is also the Director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative and a past president of the Sports Lawyers Association.